


His Brother's Keeper

by Sand_wolf579



Category: Fablehaven Series - Brandon Mull
Genre: Brotherly Love, Family Feels, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2019-08-21 08:39:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 35,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16573274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sand_wolf579/pseuds/Sand_wolf579
Summary: From the moment that he had first laid eyes his little brother, Dale knew that he would do anything to keep Warren safe.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've just finished rereading the Fablehaven series, and I almost forgot just how much I loved it. Honestly though, one thing that I could always use more of though is sibling feels. We got some from Kendra and Seth, but honestly I've always been much more interested in Dale and Warren's relationship. Especially since Dale is so much older than Warren, and we never really get to see sibling relationships like that in books or shows, at least not while the siblings are still kids. So I'm writing this to explore that beautiful relationship of theirs.

Twelve year old Dale kicked his legs and frowned as he looked around the hospital waiting room. He could count on one hand the number of times that he had been outside of Fablehaven. He never felt completely comfortable out here in the normal world. Everything was too loud, there were way too many people, and it all moved too fast for him. Dale just wanted to get back to the reserve, but they couldn’t leave without his mom, and she wasn’t going anywhere until she finished giving birth to Dale’s new baby brother.

Dale glanced over to his dad, who hadn’t said a word since they got here. Dale wanted to talk, even if just to have something to do, but he felt too uncomfortable to start up a conversation himself. He wished that Lena was waiting out here with them, she always had ideas on how to avoid boredom, but she was with his mom, and had been basically all day.

Dale looked up at the clock on the wall and glared at it in annoyance. His parents had told him a few years ago about where babies came from, but neither of them had mentioned just how long the actual labor took. Mom was just having a baby, he really didn’t understand why that should take nearly nine hours.

Dale sighed in irritation, and his dad looked down at him. “Feeling a bit bored, are you?”

“A little.” Dale admitted. “What’s taking so long?”

“Believe it or not, you took even longer.” Dad smirked, and the boy pouted. It wasn’t his fault that babies took forever to be born. “You just have to be patient. It shouldn’t be much longer.”

“But we’ve been here forever.” Dale complained. “Why did we have to come here anyways? Why couldn’t Mom have the baby back at Fablehaven like she did with me?” 

Dad’s smile became slightly strained. “There have been some complications, and me and your mother agreed that it would be best if she had the baby at a hospital, just in case.”

“Complications?” Dale frowned in slight concern. “Is there something wrong with the baby? Are he and mom going to be okay?”

Dad smiled and put a hand on Dale’s shoulder. “They’ll be just fine. We just thought it would be better to be safe than sorry.” He didn’t sound worried, but Dale couldn’t help but think that something was seriously wrong. He wished that he could see his mom already, not just because he was bored, but because he wanted to know that she and the baby were okay.

Dad seemed to notice that Dale wasn’t comforted by his words, so he took a different approach. “Are you excited to be a big brother?” 

“I guess so,” Dale shrugged. Growing up he had basically been the only kid living at Fablehaven. Sometimes the Sorensons would come over, but while Stan or Ruth might stay for the summer, their kids usually just stayed for a couple of days at a time. Stan and Ruth both knew about Fablehaven, and Dale knew that Lena was considering them to be the new caretakers, but their kids didn’t know about the magical stuff at all.

Dale enjoyed playing with the other kids whenever they came around, but he always felt like he was walking on eggshells around them. Stan and Ruth wanted their children to know about Fablehaven, but they wanted them to learn about it for themselves. They’d been trying for years now, and if anything Scott, Carl, and Sophie were all even further from learning the truth than they had ever been. Dale always had to be extremely careful to not say anything about Fablehaven when the Sorenson kids were around, and it was really stressful.

Dale loved Fablehaven, and it would be nice to share that love with another kid, but there wasn’t a guarantee that he would be able to. “What if my brother doesn’t learn about magic, like Scott, Carl, and Sophie?”

Dad frowned slightly. “Is that what you’ve been worried about this whole time?” Dale had actually been worried about a lot of things. He had never been a big brother before. This was all really new for him. “We’ll make sure your brother knows about Fablehaven. We’ll teach him about it from a young age, just like we did with you, remember?” Dale didn’t really remember learning about Fablehaven. It was just something that he had always known. That must’ve been because he had learned it from such an early age. “Don’t worry so much. Your brother will grow up knowing about Fablehaven, and you’ll be able to have adventures with him.”

That was something that Dale had always wanted, but he didn’t think it would be as easy as his dad made it out to be. “But I’m so much older than him. By the time he’ll be big enough to go on adventures, I’ll be too busy doing work around Fablehaven.” Dale had been helping his dad with groundskeeping duties at Fablehaven, and he had already been promised that as he got older he would be able to have more responsibilities. Dale suspected that in the next five years he would be helping out nearly as much as his dad did. How was he supposed to be friends with his brother, or even have any relationship with him at all, when there was such a big age difference between between?

“I’m sure you’ll figure things out.” Dad said, and that really wasn’t an answer. It was just a way to stall this conversation for a few years. Dale was about to call his dad out about it when a nurse came out looking for the ‘Burgess’’. Dad smiled at him encouragingly and the two of them got to their feet and followed the nurse.

Dale stayed close to his father’s side as they went to the room where his mom and baby brother (hopefully) were. When they got to the room the first thing that Dale noticed was that his mom was crying, which alarmed him. He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen her cry. The second thing that he noticed was the little bundle of blankets in his mom’s arms. His new baby brother.

Dad immediately went to Mom’s side and hugged her, which looked a little awkward because she was lying on a bed and had a baby in her arms. It seemed that Dad was too emotional to care, because he was crying too. Dale lingered in the doorway, feeling uncertain about what he should do. Lena took notice of him and soon came to his side.

“Do you want to come meet Warren?” Lena asked kindly.

“Warren?” Dale tested the name of his new baby brother. It felt weird to say. “I don’t know.” It looked to Dale like his mom and dad had the baby covered. He didn’t want to crowd the little thing.

“Come on,” Lena encouraged gently as she took Dale’s hand and lead him closer to the bed. “Your mother needs to rest anyways.” Dale didn’t think that his mom agreed, but when Lena tried to take the baby, Mom didn’t resist too much.

“Just sit right there.” Lena gestured to a chair right next to the bed. Dale sat down, and after Lena was sure that he was situated, she gently put Warren in his arms. Dale felt like he couldn’t breathe. Warren just felt so fragile in his arms. 

“Why’s he so small?” Dale looked at Lena.

“He’s a baby.” Dad reminded him. Dale glared at his dad in annoyance.

“Well, yeah, but even for a baby he feels so small.” Dale wasn’t an expert on babies and he didn’t really know just how big or small they were supposed to be, but he just couldn’t believe that all babies were as little and weak as Warren was.

“He is a little small.” Lena admitted. “But he’ll get bigger.” 

“If you say so.” Dale looked back at Warren and frowned. “What’s his full name?” Dale knew that his parents had come up with Warren’s first and middle name months ago, and they had refused to even give him a hint. Dale had never really cared about nicknames before, but his parents’ secrecy had just made him really curious.

Mom smiled proudly. “Warren Patton Burgess.”

“Patton?” Dad looked at mom and Lena in shock. “I thought you wanted to name him after your dad?”

“I did,” Mom said. “But when we saw just how strong Warren was, no other name but Patton felt right.”

“Strong?” Dale looked his brother over, trying to find a sign of this so called strength that Mom said he had. “He’s just a baby. How is he strong?”

The tears welled up in Mom’s eyes all over again, and Dale wondered what he had said wrong. “We...we almost lost Warren.”

“Lost him?” Dale tightened his grip on Warren. He had only just met his brother, he barely even knew him at all, but the thought that Warren almost didn’t make it scared Dale more than anything else. “What happened?”

“There were just some complications.” Lena said, same as Dad did. Dale didn’t know if he wanted to know what ‘complications’ meant, or if he would rather it be a mystery. Dale shuddered when he remembered that dad told him that they had come to the hospital just in case. If they hadn’t come here, Warren might not even be alive right now. Dale felt really bad for complaining. If a little bit of boredom was what he had to go through to have a healthy little brother, then it was a price that Dale was more than happy to pay.

Dale held Warren close as he watched him sleep. He looked so peaceful. If Dale hadn’t been told about what could have happened, he wouldn’t have ever guessed. Warren looked perfectly fine now, but Dale couldn’t shake the paranoid feeling that if he took his eyes off of Warren for just a second that something would happen to him.

Dale hadn’t known how he felt about being a big brother, but now it was a job that he took really seriously. Warren may be strong, but he was still just a little baby. As his big brother, it was Dale’s job to watch out for Warren, and it was a job that Darren took really seriously.

Dale may just be a kid, but he would do everything in his power to keep Warren safe. Nothing was going to happen to Warren, not if Dale had anything to do about it.


	2. Chapter 2

Dale lazely opened his eyes as he was woken unexpectedly from his sleep. He had always been a light sleeper, but he didn’t often wake up in the middle of the night for no reason. He knew that something must have woken him up, but it took him a few moments to figure it out. After lying in bed for a few moments Dale became aware of the sound of rain against the window. There was a storm going on outside.

Dale sat up and looked outside just in time to see a flash of lightning that was so bright that for an instant it seemed to light up the entire attic. Just as quickly as the light was there, it was gone again, but it was quickly followed by a roll of thunder that was so deep and close that it almost seemed like it shook the entire house.

“That’s some storm.” Dale muttered as he looked outside and watched as the rain fell. Fablehaven didn’t often get storms, and this was probably the worst one that Dale had ever seen. He could already tell that there was going to be a lot of damage control to do around the preserve. He just hoped that none of the creatures chose now to cause some trouble, because there would be enough to do without dealing with any uprising.

Dale yawned and burrowed back under his covers. He knew that there was going to be a lot to do tomorrow, and he didn’t want to be half asleep during any of it. Dale was about to fall back asleep when he heard something hit the window outside. Dale would have brushed off the noise as just another sound of the storm when he heard a quiet whimper.

“Warren, you awake over there?” Dale turned over and looked towards the other bed. He could see a little lump of blankets in the middle of the bed, and he knew that it had to be his brother.

“...No.” Warren’s little voice cut through the sound of the storm. Dale smiled to himself at the answer. Moments like this made him actually enjoy sharing a room with a little three year old. The kid just said the craziest things. 

“Oh, well, if you’re not awake, then I guess I’d better go back to sleep too.” Dale said as he laid his head on the pillow and began to fake snore.

“No, wait!” Warren threw his covers off and looked at his brother in alarm. He clearly didn’t want to be left alone during the storm.

“So you are awake.” Dale sat up. “The rain making it hard to sleep?”

“...Maybe.” Warren pulled his blankets close around him until his face was the only thing that was visible. “I’m not scared though.”

“Of course not.” Dale nodded. Warren may just be a kid, but he was way too proud to admit that he was was scared of anything. “We all have nights where we can’t sleep.” Dale scooted over and held his blanket up. “You want to come keep me company?”

Warren looked hesitant, but when there was another flash of lightning the three year old yelped and practically leaped out of his bed. He dashed to Dale’s side and jumped into his bed with him. Dale smiled and pulled his little brother closer.

“You know, if you close your eyes you can almost pretend that there are creatures outside instead of a storm.” Dale said. For a lot of kids the thought of a monster being in their backyard was a lot scarier than a little bit of rain, but Dale knew that Warren had a really dangerously weird fascination with dangerous monsters.

Sure enough, Warren seemed to brighten up at Dale’s suggestion. “Really? What creatures?”

Warren looked out the window as he considered what to say. “Well, the lightning could come from a migrating thunderbird.”

“A thunderbird?” Warren’s voice was filled with awe, like it usually was whenever he was told about a creature he had never heard of before. 

“They’re supposed to be really big birds that throw lightning and cause thunder when they flap their wings.” Dale said. That was about everything that he knew about the creatures, but he knew it wasn’t enough to satisfy the kid’s curiosity.

“What do they look like?” Warren asked excitedly.

Dale bit his lip. He had barely even heard of thunderbirds, let alone knew what they looked like. “Well, what do you think it looks like?”

“A dragon!” Warren said quickly. “And it has wings made out of rain clouds, and a lightning tail, and it eats dogs, and that’s why dogs are scared of storms.”

“...Wow.” Dale muttered. He did not understand how Warren could feel more comfortable with the thought that a dragon that ate dogs was flying over their house, but if it made him feel safe from the storm, let him fantasize about whatever made him feel better. “I would hate to meet that dragon.”

“Thunderbird.” Warren corrected.

“Right, thunderbird, sorry,” Dale chuckled. “It sounds scary.”

“I want to see one.” Warren cuddled closer to his brother.

“Of course you do.” Dale tightened his grip on his brother, like he could somehow protect Warren from a creature that was nowhere near Fablehaven. Dale didn’t understand Warren’s obsession with dangerous creatures. He hoped that it was just a phase, that Warren’s fascination was just a regular thing that little boys went through, but he was starting to worry that this was going to be something that would stick with Warren throughout his entire life.

Dale blamed his great-great uncle that he had never met before. Maybe naming Warren after Patton, who was probably one of the greatest adventurers of his time, had been a bad idea, because it seemed like Warren had inherited the man’s desire for adventure.

Dale himself wasn’t all that interested in going on adventures. He got enough adventures just helping his dad out with groundskeeping duties at Fablehaven. Warren though, the more exotic and dangerous something was, the more excited he was about it. Dale dreaded the day when Warren met an adventurer like Coulter Dixon.

Then again, it would probably be best if Warren found himself somebody that could teach him how to handle dangerous situations, because Dale had the feeling that Warren would somehow find himself in these situations anyways. If Warren was going to go on adventures, he might as well know how to take care of himself.

But Dale could save worrying about that for a later date.

Right now, Warren wasn’t an explorer risking his neck to get treasures and artifacts from dragons. He was just a scared little kid who was looking to his older brother to protect him from the storm outside. Dale knew that Warren was going to grow up eventually, and it would probably happen much sooner than Dale would like, but for now he was just going to hold onto this moment for as long as he could.


	3. Chapter 3

Dale had always considered himself a fairly easy-going kid. If his parents asked him to do something that he didn’t necessarily like to do, he did it anyways, with very little complaining. He had heard that most kids as they got older became more defiant towards their parents, but Dale hadn’t ever had that problem. If anything, after becoming a teenager he had become even more willing to do what his parents wanted. 

It wasn’t that Dale was a doormat who was willing to roll over because he wanted to avoid confrontation. If Dale had a problem with something, he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind about it. He just recognized and respected his parents’ experience and wisdom. He may not be a little kid anymore, but he wasn’t an adult. And he’d lived on Fablehaven his whole life. His parents just knew more about the world as a whole than he did.

But he knew all too well that they weren’t perfect, and when his parents were wrong about something, they were incredibly wrong about it.

“Would you two just listen to me?” Dale pleaded as he closed the suitcase that his parents were in the middle of packing. “You can’t leave.”

“Dale,” Dad sighed in tired frustration as he ran a hand through his hair. Dale recognized the feeling, because he felt the same way. He had heard from Lena just half an hour ago that his parents had been called away on another ‘assignment’, and he had been in their room arguing with them about it since then. “We have to go. It’s our responsibility.”

Dale rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “You have responsibilities here.” Dale had learned years ago that when his parents got an assignment from their so called secret society, that they were expected to make this task their number one priority. Dale understood how important the Knights of the Dawn were, but were there really no other knights who could do whatever the Captain wanted? Dale just found it hard to believe that his parents were the only capable knights available.

“Fablehaven will be fine for a few weeks, honey.” Mom tried to reassure him, but her words just angered Dale even more. He really hadn’t been concerned about Fablehaven. He was nearly seventeen. He could do nearly every one of the groundskeeping duties that his dad handled. And if there was a job that Dale couldn’t do, Lena was more than capable of dealing with the odd task. Dale knew that Fablehaven would be in good hands, even if his parents weren’t there, but the magical reserve really wasn’t the only thing that his parents should be thinking about.

Dale took in a deep breath. He knew that getting angry would accomplish nothing. If he wanted his parents to actually listen to what he was saying, he had to stay calm. “What about Warren?”

To his parents’ credit, they looked at least somewhat ashamed. The two of them probably remembered just as clearly as Dale did what had happened the last time they had both left to do work for the Knights of the Dawn. Dale had barely been ten years old when his parents, with barely any warning, had up and left for nearly two weeks. He hadn’t been left on his own, exactly, as Lena had been around, but it just wasn’t the same.

Dale probably would have been just fine if he had known about the Knights of the Dawn at the time, but he hadn’t been told yet. Back then, all that Dale knew was that his parents had left, nobody was able to give him a good answer as to why, and he hadn’t had any idea when they would return, if they would even come back at all. It had taken Dale nearly a month after their return for him to begin to trust that they weren’t going to leave him again.

Dale was old enough now to understand why his parents were leaving, and he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself during their absence, but Warren was still just a kid. He was barely four years old for goodness sake. Dale had been pretty traumatized when his parents had left, and it still made him feel a little paranoid sometimes,

Warren was just way too young to have to go through any of that mess, and it was absolutely infuriating that their parents didn’t recognize it.

“Warren’s strong.” Mom said kindly. “He’ll understand.” He was just a kid. He wouldn’t understand anything. And while Dale agreed that his brother was strong, that didn’t mean that their parents, or anybody, should use that as an excuse to basically neglect the poor kid. It didn’t matter how strong he was, he still needed his parents around, just like most all kids did.

“Mom, he needs you guys here.” Dale pleaded quietly. Mom sighed and took his hand. She drew him closer and wrapped her arms around him. Despite his frustration, Dale leaned in to his mom’s embrace.

“We won’t be gone long.” Dad promised. He put a hand on Dale’s shoulder, even though the teenager had half expected him to take advantage of how the suitcase wasn’t blocked anymore to continue packing. His parents were trying, they weren’t cruel, but they still felt like they needed to leave. 

Dale slumped and his eyes hardened into a cold glare. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to convince them to stay. They had sworn an oath when they had joined the Knights of the Dawn, they had to come when they were called. He knew this, he just didn’t understand or accept it.

But it wasn’t like he actually had a say on the matter.

“When are you leaving?” Dale asked.

“Immediately.” Dad said apologetically. “Our flight leaves first thing in the morning.”

Which meant that they would be gone before dawn. Warren had gone to bed a few hours ago, and by the time he woke up they would already be gone. Not only were they leaving Warren without any explanation, they were leaving without even saying goodbye first. Dale had never been much of an adventurer anyways, but at that moment he swore to himself that he would never join the Knights of the Dawn. He wouldn’t put himself in a position where he may have to abandon his little brother.

“What am I supposed to say to Warren?” Dale muttered, because he really didn’t know.

“You can tell him we’re off treasure hunting.” Dad suggested. “He’ll probably love that.”

Despite how upset he was, Dale couldn’t help but snort in amusement. Knowing Warren, he would be absolutely ecstatic at the thought of treasure hunting and daring adventures. Warren would probably end up being more devastated that he wasn’t allowed to go along than upset because his parents were gone.

“Watch out for him.” Mom tightened her embrace before letting Dale go so she could look him in the eyes.

“I always do.” Dale swore. He had promised himself that he would watch out for Warren four years ago, and that wasn’t changing now. “Be careful out there.” Dale may know about the Knights of the Dawn, but he didn’t know the specifics of what their assignments were. It was supposed to be a secret society, after all.

“We don’t have any plans of dying any time soon.” Dad joked, but Dale didn’t find it funny. Nobody planned for accidents to happen, that was why they were accidents. Dad must have realized that Dale didn’t appreciate his attempt at humor, because he smiled reassuringly. “We’ll be careful. We’ll be back home before you know it.”

“If you say so.” Dale said reluctantly. He finally pulled away from his parents. “I should probably get to bed.” If his parents were leaving in the morning, he had a lot more work to do tomorrow, and they still had packing to do.

“Goodnight.” Mom pulled Dale closer again and kissed his forehead. “We love you.” She brushed his long hair out of his face. He needed to get a haircut, but it looked like that would have to wait a little longer.

“Love you too.” Dale muttered. They weren’t words that he enjoyed saying easily, but he knew that it was what his mom needed to hear. He wasn’t happy with her, but he didn’t want her to leave for who knows how long thinking that he hated her just because they had just fought.

Dale pulled away from his mom again and backed out of the room. He closed the door behind him and leaned back against the wall. He really did feel absolutely exhausted, though he didn’t know if that was because it had been a long day, or because he’d just had an emotionally trying half hour.

Dale would be more than happy to just collapse on his bed and go to sleep, but he couldn’t do that yet. There was still one more thing he needed to do. Dale glanced to the side towards the couch that was against the wall. One of the sides of the couch was pulled out about a foot further than the other end. Dale had a pretty educated guess on what had caused that.

Dale sighed and walked over to the couch. He knelt on the cushions and peered over the back of the couch. Just as he expected, there was a little child curled up behind the couch. Warren looked up at Dale in alarm, the look in his eyes making it clear that he was worried that he was in trouble. Dale would normally scold his brother for listening in on conversations that he had no part in, especially when he should already be asleep at this time. Considering the circumstances, he was willing to let it slide this once.

Dale brought a finger to his lips, signaling that Warren keep quiet. Warren bit his lip and nodded. Dale signaled for Warren to come out from behind the couch. Once Warren was out, Dale pushed the couch back into place and picked Warren up. He wanted to talk to Warren, but he didn’t want to bother their parents, so it could wait until they were back up in the attic.

As Dale walked past the kitchen he saw Lena up waiting up, sitting at the table. She didn’t comment on Warren still being awake, she had probably seen him sneak down the stairs. Lena just smiled encouragingly at them. Lena probably understood how they felt, and knew that they just needed time.

Dale took Warren up the stairs. As soon as they were in the attic Warren looked at Dale expectedly. “Where are Mom and Dad going?”

Dale sighed and sat Warren on his bed. “I don’t know.” He really didn’t. Dale didn’t even know what their assignment was, let alone where they were going. It didn’t really matter though. Dale knew that his brother wasn’t really asking where they were going, but why they were leaving in the first place. “They just have a job that they need to do, and they’ll be back when they’re done.”

Warren pouted. “Why can’t someone else do it?” 

Dale grimaced. He didn’t really have a good answer for that, because he was wondering the same thing. “I don’t know.” Dale had never hated so much that he didn’t have all the answers. Warren was upset and confused, and Dale didn’t know what to say to reassure him.

Warren looked so disappointed that Dale knew that he had to say something. He couldn’t stand seeing his little brother so upset. “Hey, don’t get like that. You know that if you start crying you’ll never be able to go to sleep.” Dale nudged Warren’s arm playfully. 

Warren rubbed at his eyes and glared at his brother. “I’m not crying.” He insisted.

“Well, that’s good.” Dale said. While he felt emotionally exhausted when he was upset, which made it really easy to sleep, Warren took so long to calm down that it was almost impossible to get him to sleep soon after he started getting worked up about something. “I don’t want you to be sleepy tomorrow. Afterall, once Dad’s gone, I’m going to need to help around Fablehaven.”

Warren’s eyes widened. “Wait, I can help?” He sounded so excited, that Dale almost felt bad for not including Warren with the chores around Fablehaven sooner.

“You don’t expect me to do everything myself, do you?” Dale asked in faux shock. Warren giggled slightly, though he tried to hide his smile behind his hand. “I wouldn’t be very good at it, would I?”

“Nope.” Warren shook his head. “You need lots of help.”

“You bet I do.” Dale laid down on the bed and pulled his brother down next to him. “You up for it?”

“Yes!” Warren said eagerly. 

“Okay, but that means you need to get some sleep.” Dale pulled the covers up over the two of them. “Maybe we’ll be able to convince Lena to make some pancakes in the morning.” Dale doubted there would actually be much convincing involved. If he knew Lena, the two of them would probably wake up to the small of fresh pancakes. It was a bit of a Fablehaven tradition, to have pancakes for breakfast for special occasions, whether they be good or bad.

“M’kay.” Warren yawned as he curled up close to Dale. He was quiet for a moment before he decided that he wanted to ask just one more question. “Will Mom and Dad be okay?”

Dale smiled gently and ran a hand through Warren’s curly hair. “I’m sure they’ll be just fine.” Even though he just wanted to make his brother feel better, Dale couldn’t help but feel like he was lying to him, giving him false hope, because he himself had these same doubts.

Dale just hoped that his parents got home safely, and that his reassurance wouldn’t end up being a lie after all.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter begins one of the reasons why I began to write this story in the first place. In the second book, when Dale and Tanu take Kendra and Seth to visit Warren for the first time, Dale tells the kids that Warren had been living in the cabin even before he had become albino. According to Dale, Warren had always like his privacy. This is one of the instances in books where things are said more than they’re shown. I don’t know about any of you, but I never saw any indication that Warren was the kind of person who liked his privacy. And then there’s the fact that when Warren is albino, he seems to have sensory hypersensitivity, and has an aversion to crowds, and I just don’t feel like these things would just come out of nowhere. So I wanted to write Warren in a way that at least implied that he’s not a fan of crowds and being around larger groups of people.

Dale swung the mallet down and hit it against the No Trespassing sign. This final hit embedded the sign’s post into the dirt. Dale lowered his mallet and tried to shake the sign with his hand. It was steady.

Dale sighed in exhaustion and let the mallet fall from his grip. He was used to physical work, and he was used to working all day, but he rarely did such manual labor for so long. His arms felt heavy as lead, and he already knew that getting up in the morning would be torture. At least he was done for now. The signs were all up, and beginning tomorrow his burden would hopefully be lifted.

After all, that was the whole point of the Sorenson’s coming here.

“You look like you’ve had a long day.” Dale turned to see Stan Sorenson pulling up in the truck. “Do you want a ride back to the house?”

“Please,” Dale gratefully made his way to the truck. He tossed the mallet into the bed of the truck and climbed into the passenger seat. He leaned back and closed his eyes as his exhaustion began to catch up to him. He felt like he could sleep for a week. Despite how tired he was, he felt the need to report on the work done. “I got all the signs up.”

“Good boy.” Stan handed Dale a bottle of water. It was lukewarm, but Dale couldn’t care less. He practically gulped the water down. Dale had to force himself to slow down. The water really wasn’t going anywhere, and it wouldn’t do anybody any good if he got himself sick by drinking too much too quickly. “I didn’t expect you to get it all done in one day. There were a lot of signs.”

“Getting it all done today frees up my schedule for tomorrow.” Dale said. There was a lot of work to do around Fablehaven. He didn’t have time to linger on one task for longer than was necessary. “What about you? Did the centaurs accept you as the caretaker?”

“They weren’t happy about it.” Stan said as he turned the truck around and began the drive back up the driveway towards the house. “But they’re not going to cause trouble.”

“At least we’ve got that going for us.” Dale looked out the window and frowned at all of the signs they passed. He had put up every single one of them. “Are the signs really necessary?”

“They’re just a precaution.” Stan said. “One can never be too careful on a preserve like this.”

“No, I guess not.” Dale shrugged. He wasn’t used to Stan’s ways of working, but he couldn’t question everything that the man did. Stan was Fablehaven’s caretaker now. It was ultimately his decision how this place was to be run. If Stan wanted signs to keep outsiders out, that was what they would have. Dale would just end up driving himself crazy if he always questioned Stan’s way of working. He just had to get used to it, because this was the way that things were now. 

Things weren’t going to go back to how they were before, and the sooner Dale accepted it, the sooner he could help his brother do the same thing.

Their parents had been gone for six months, and there was no sign when they would be back, or if they would even come back at all. Dale and Warren’s parents had went on an assignment for the Knights of the Dawn, and something had happened to them there. Dale didn’t know what, nobody did. All anybody knew was that their parents were lost.

The Knights of the Dawn have been looking for them, but they were no closer to finding them than they had been before. Dale wanted to go look for them, but the Knights had forbidden it. And there was no way that he would leave Warren the way that they had.

Dale was worried about his brother. He hadn’t seen much of Warren these past few months. It wasn’t that he was trying to avoid Warren or anything. Dale just had a lot of work to do. Warren tried to help out where he could, but Dale refused to let him leave the yard, so there wasn’t a lot the kid could do. Dale did his best to be back to the house before dark every day, but it didn’t always happen. All too often, Dale didn’t get back until long after Warren was already asleep.

It was because of this that Dale finally agreed to let the Sorensons take up the caretaking responsibilities early. He didn’t have anything against the Sorensons, he actually really liked Stan and Ruth. But the original plan had been that Stan and Ruth would wait until all of their kids were grown and moved out before moving to Fablehaven. Until then, Lena would be the official caretaker, and Dale’s parents would handle the groundskeeping. Now that they were gone, that plan just didn’t work anymore. Dale couldn’t handle all of this work on his own, and Lena, though capable, wasn’t as young as she used to be. They needed help.

Dale knew that having the Sorensons around would really help, but he had been reluctant to let them come. Accepting the fact that the Sorensons were needed now felt the same as accepting that Dale’s parents just weren’t coming home, and that was a tough pill to swallow.

But after six months, Dale knew that enough was enough, so he let the Sorensons come over for good. It had only been one day, so Dale had yet to see much of a different, but he knew that if they gave it time that things would get better.

They just had to get over this first hurdle, this first week, first.

When they pulled up to the house Dale saw Ruth sitting on the porch waiting for them. As soon as Stan turned off the car Dale let himself out and went to grab the mallet from the back.

“You said you would be back before dinner.” Ruth scolded her husband. “The others have already started eating.”

“It couldn’t be helped.” Stan said. “How have the kids been? Any of them asking questions?”

“Not at all.” Ruth said in a strange tone that was hard to interpret. “They aren’t even curious about why they can’t go into the woods.” Dale frowned at these words. Ruth was talking about their kids, Scott, Sophie, and Carl. Because both Ruth and Stan were here, they didn’t have much of a choice but to bring their kids with them. Scott and Sophie were both adults, but only barely, and Carl was only sixteen. They couldn’t stay home on their own, so for this first week Stan and Ruth would be here together with the kids to get used to how Fablehaven worked. After that Ruth would take the kids home, and then she and Stan would switch off their responsibilities every two weeks.

“How’s Warren doing?” Dale asked. 

“He’s ecstatic about having people around to play with.” Ruth smiled gently at him, but her words caused Dale to feel a pang of guilt. He felt bad that he wasn’t around to be there for Warren. He was his brother. Dale should be Warren’s favorite playmate, but he could barely remember the last time they’d actually played together. Dale was just too busy.

He was glad that Warren had somebody else around that he could play with, he was just disappointed that it couldn’t be him.

At least there was still time today to spend some time with Warren.

Dale walked past Ruth and went inside. He made his way into the kitchen where he found Lena, Scott, Sophie, and Carl all sitting down and eating dinner. Dale’s stomach grumbled at the delicious smell of the food. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was. He was about to pull up a chair and get some food when he noticed that his brother wasn’t at the table.

“Where’s Warren?” Dale looked to Lena.

“Oh, he’s just up in the attic,” Lena said, like there wasn’t any reason to worry about it. “Would you mind calling him to come down?”

Dale frowned as he pushed the chair in. “Yeah, I can get him.” Lena’s words made it seem like Warren hadn’t been told that dinner was ready, but Dale knew that wasn’t the case. Lena always called Warren down to eat, so Dale knew that his brother knew perfectly well that food was ready. He just hadn’t come down, and Lena wanted Dale to figure out why.

Dale made his way upstairs. He paused at the attic door and hesitated for a moment before opening it up. Warren was, in fact, in there. Dale had been worried that Warren was upset about something, and that was why he was hiding away up here, but it didn’t look like that was the case. Warren seemed perfectly content. He was just playing on the unicorn rocking horse that Stan and Ruth had brought with them, along with a number of other toys from when their kids were younger. 

Dale closed the door so that he and Warren could have some privacy. “Hey, kiddo, what are you up to?”

Warren immediately stopped his rocking as he turned to Dale, an excited grin on his face. “Dale!” Warren jumped off the unicorn and ran up to embrace Dale. “You’re back!”

“Of course I am.” Dale laughed as he knelt and held tightly to his brother. “I always come back, don’t I?”

“Always,” Warren agreed enthusiastically. “Did you see any monsters today?”

“‘Fraid not,” Dale shrugged. “I just put up signs. If you want to hear about the centaurs, you’ll have to ask Stan.”

“Centaurs?” Warren said quietly, his eyes wide with awe. “Why do you get all the fun? I couldn’t even talk about these things today.”

“And you won’t be able to for the rest of the week.” Dale said seriously. He brushed Warren’s hair, which was starting to curl quite a bit, out of his face, but it just sprang back into place. “Remember, the others don’t know about Fablehaven.”

“I know.” Warren sighed in disappointment. “But it’s so boring.”

“You’ll live.” Dale chuckled. He sat down and pulled Warren onto his lap. “You know, dinner’s ready,” Warren’s pout told Dale that he was indeed aware of that. “Don’t you want to go downstairs and eat?”

“No.” Warren said easily.

Dale raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you hungry?” Warren always seemed to be hungry. Dale would be worried that Warren was coming down with something if he said he wasn’t hungry.

“A little,” Warren admitted. “I just don’t want to eat right now.”

“Mind sharing why?” Dale asked. 

“...There’s lots of people here.” Warren shrugged and tugged on the sleeve of his shirt.

Dale looked at his brother in slight shock. “You’re not feeling shy, are you?” Warren was the least shy person that Dale had ever met. The very thought of Warren being shy just felt wrong.

“No,” Warren frowned at him, almost as though he felt insulted at the suggestion. “I’m not scared,” If Dale had a dollar for every time that Warren insisted he wasn’t afraid of something, he wouldn’t have to work another day in his life. “It’s just...a lot.”

“Feeling a little overwhelmed?” Dale asked. Warren stared blankly at him, and Dale figured it was probably a little too much to expect a four year old to understand such a complicated word. “Does everything just feel a little too loud and crowded?”

“Yes!” Warren grinned. He seemed to be excited that Dale had been able to voice his feelings. “How did you know?”

“I feel that way every time I’m away from Fablehaven.” Dale said. “You’re just not used to things. I’m sure you’ll feel better about it in a day or two when you adjust to having strangers around.”

“Maybe,” Warren didn’t sound so sure. His nose scrunched up slightly. “But I like the others, they’re fun. I just…” Warren’s face went slightly red as he trailed off.

Dale studied his brother carefully. “You know, it’s okay if you want to have some time to yourself. Even if you don’t understand why.” Dale didn’t know if he could speak for everybody, but as far as he knew there was nothing wrong with somebody taking some time for themselves. It didn’t mean that they didn’t like the company of those around them, it just meant that everybody had a limit. If Warren needed a little break away from the others, then he should be able to do that without feeling bad about it.

“But what if they think I don’t like them?” Warren’s eyes shone with concern. He clearly didn’t want to hurt his new friends’ feelings.

“I’m sure they’ll understand.” Dale smiled. Scott, Sophie, and Carl were fairly close, and they liked to spend time with each other, but Dale remembered that the three of them were grateful for some alone time. Back when they used to visit Fablehaven every year or so, Dale was pretty sure that he had seen the others spend more time on their own reading a book or painting, than he had seen them spend time together.

“But here’s the thing,” Dale continued seriously. “You can’t just skip meals because it’s crowded. You don’t have to eat with the others, but you have to eat something, okay?”

Warren nodded, and that was just what Dale had been waiting for. “Great, because I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.” Dale gathered his brother in his arms and stood up. Warren instinctively wrapped his arms around Dale’s neck to steady himself. With Warren in his arms, Dale made his way out of the attic and back down the stairs.

“You okay with eating next to the pool?” Dale asked.

“Yes!” Warren giggled. “Yes, yes, yes!” Dale laughed at his brother’s reaction.

“Alright, but now I have an even more important question for you, and I need you to be completely honest with me, okay.” Dale shifted his grip on Warren so that his brother was looking him in the eye. Warren nodded, confusion and slight concern in his eyes. “Will you be okay with me eating with you, or do you want to be left alone?”

“Um…” Warren frowned thoughtfully before he nodded. “You can stay.”

Dale grinned, feeling extremely pleased with himself, even though he knew that even if Warren had wanted to be on his own, that it wouldn’t mean anything personal. “I thought you didn’t want to be around people?” Dale wasn’t trying to make his brother question his own feelings, he just wanted to understand what was going on in Warren’s head.

“Well, yeah, but you don’t count.” Warren rolled his eyes, like it was obvious. Dale snorted, too amused by his brother’s words to be insulted or hurt at the implication that he didn’t count as a person in Warren’s eyes.

“Glad to hear it.” Dale gave his brother a slight squeeze, which made Warren giggle. “Now, let’s go see what Lena has whipped up for dinner today.” When they reached the bottom of the stairs Dale put Warren down. As he expected, Warren ran off into the kitchen ahead of him. Once Warren was out of sight, Dale slumped forward and shook out his arms. Picking up his brother after spending all day swinging around a mallet maybe wasn’t the smartest plan, but he was through with letting his work at Fablehaven keep him from his brother.

Dale followed Warren into the kitchen and found him already telling Lena about their plan to eat dinner outside. Lena didn’t seem to be against the idea, there was actually very little that Lena wouldn’t allow. She did look slightly concerned though. Dale made a mental note to tell her about how Warren was feeling overwhelmed with how many people were around. Lena was around Warren more than Dale was. She would be able to help him work out his need for personal space.

Dale would also be right here to help Warren if he needed it. He may have a lot of work to do around Fablehaven, but he was always more than happy to help Warren with anything that he may be struggling with. Dale just hoped that Warren knew that.


	5. Chapter 5

Dale trudged with half-lidded eyes back into the house. He felt dead on his feet, and just thinking about taking those last couple of steps into the house felt like an impossible task. He could easily curl up on the porch and fall asleep right then and there, but he couldn’t do that. The lights were still on inside, which likely meant that Lena was still up and about. Dale didn’t know for sure that she was waiting up for him, as he didn’t actually know how late it was, but he knew that Lena wouldn’t go to bed until after she knew that he was home safe. It wouldn’t be fair to make her wait up and worry just because he was lazy.

Dale yawned as he pushed open the front door and went inside. He turned off the lights in the hall as he made his way to the kitchen. Just as he expected, Lena was awake, sitting at the table and reading a book. She looked up when she heard him enter, and smiled, though there was also a look of concern in her eyes.

“I was wondering when you would be back.” Lena put her book down. “I’ve never seen you out this late before.”

Dale pulled up a chair across from Lena and slumped into it. He folded his arms on the table and rested his head on them. “I needed to finish my work.”

“Well, maybe I should have a few words with Stan,” Dale could practically hear Lena’s disapproving frown. “You may do a lot of work around Fablehaven, but you’re just a child, you need your rest.”

Dale tensed and lifted his head just enough to be able to see the clock on the wall. He felt his stomach drop when he saw that it was past midnight. He had been expecting this, but it felt unreal. “Not anymore.”

 

Lena frowned in confusion. She followed his gaze to the clock, and her gaze softened in understanding. She knew exactly what was going on. “Is that why you were out so late?”

“I had too much on my mind,” Dale muttered. He wasn’t proud of how long it had taken him to finish a day’s worth of chores. “I couldn’t focus.”

“I’m not surprised,” Lena stood up came to Dale’s side of the table. “We all have days like that every once and awhile.” Lena took a seat in the chair next to him. “But next time something like this happens, I want you to just come home, or at least stick to doing work in the yard. You know how dangerous it can be to wander around Fablehaven if you’re not completely focused on what you’re doing.”

“I know,” Dale said sheepishly. He had gotten careless that day. He knew that it would likely happen again, but he would at least try to do what Lena requested. “I’ll try,”

“I want you to do a little more than try,” Lena said. “Tell you what, whenever something like this happens, you’re going to spend the following day off.”

Dale winced and considered her words. “I guess that’s fair,” Whether he thought it was fair or not, he knew that she would force him to go through with it anyways. Dale hated having unplanned days off, so it was good motivation to watch himself. And if he was unfocused while working, then maybe he should have a day off anyways.

“I’m glad you agree,” Lena said, and Dale really didn’t like the tone in her voice. She was up to something. “You can start tomorrow.”

“I...wait,” Dale looked at her in shock. “What?” You can’t-”

“I can, and I have,” Lena in that way that was impossible to argue with. “We made a deal. I’ve already spoken with Ruth and Stan. They’ve both agreed to work around Fablehaven so you can have a day off.”

“Is that really necessary?” Dale winced. “Can’t I just get off with a warning?”

“Absolutely not, you’re spending time at home tomorrow.” Lena said. “I would think you would be happy for the chance to spend time with Warren.”

Dale paused and actually considered Lena’s suggestion. “Well, now you’re just not playing fair.” 

“I never do,” Lena looked much too pleased with herself. “Now, why don’t you go upstairs and get some sleep? You look exhausted.”

“I feel exhausted.” Dale got to his feet. “Are you sure it’s okay for me to sleep up there?”

“You should both be just fine” Lena assured him. “We’ll deal with things in the morning.”

Dale wasn’t so sure that things would be okay, but he was far too tired and relieved to argue anymore about it. “M’kay, goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Dale,” Lena said gently. She gave him a quick hug before she gave him a gentle push towards the attic stairs. Dale slowly made his way up the stairs and into the attic. Because Warren was almost certainly asleep, Dale didn’t turn the lights on. He didn’t want to wake up his brother. Dale slowly made his way through the room, one step at a time.

When Dale reached his bed he kicked his shoes off and collapsed onto the bed. He didn’t normally sleep in his work clothes, but now that he was on his bed, he wasn’t planning on moving anytime soon. He could sleep in his clothes this once. If it meant getting to sleep sooner, he was all for it.

“Dale, are you awake?” Warren stage-whispered from his bed.

Dale sighed and turned towards his brother’s bed. “Yeah, I’m awake. What are you doing up? Do you have any idea how late it is?”

“Nope,” Through the darkness Dale could see Warren swing his feet off his bed and hop off. Warren grabbed his plush dragon, Scorch, given to him by Ruth for his fifth birthday, and made his way to Dale’s bed. “Why were you gone so long? Stan was back forever ago.”

“I just took a longer time getting my work done,” Dale said. He scooted over to give Warren room to join him. This past year he’d been trying to encourage Warren to not rely on sleeping with him so much, to stay in his own bed during a storm or when he’d had a nightmare, but Dale just couldn’t turn Warren away tonight. Not when he knew that this might be the last time that they could do this.

“You know, Lena said I could have tomorrow off.” Dale said. Just as he expected, Warren looked at him in awe, like he had just announced that Christmas would come early this year. 

“Really? You’re going to be home? All day?” Warren started spurting off questions as quickly as he could. Dale laughed.

“All day,” He promised. “There’s still a lot of work I need to do, but none of it will take me away from the house or yard.” 

“Does this mean I can help you?” Warren asked hopefully, like there was nothing that he wanted more in the world than to help Dale with his chores. Warren was always eager to help, but there was only so much that a kid like him could do around Fablehaven. Especially since Warren wasn’t allowed to leave the yard. It was far too dangerous for him.

“I’m counting on it.” Dale said. Warren smiled and clung tightly to Scorch as he snuggled closer to his brother.

“I wish you were home more,” Warren said quietly. “I miss you.”

“I miss you too, Warren,” Dale put his arm around his brother. If he could have his way, he would never let him go. “You have no idea how much I miss being around you.” The whole reason why Dale had been so distracted that day was because he’d been thinking so much about how his relationship with his brother may change because of what needed to happen tomorrow.

Irony was cruel sometimes. All of Dale’s worrying about not being able to have as much time with Warren had been the very thing that had kept him away from Warren all day. Dale knew that he had to find a balance between his work and spending time with his brother, because neither of them were handling this very well.

Dale closed his eyes and let himself begin to doze off. He still felt anxious about tomorrow, especially tomorrow night, but he couldn’t worry about it. Worrying would just ruin the moment he was trying to hold onto. He could, and would, stress about things tomorrow. Tonight, he just wanted to enjoy being with his brother.

Dale felt like he wasn’t even able to get any sleep at all, but he must have fallen asleep at one point, because all too soon he was being woken up by Warren jumping on his chest. Dale groaned and cracked his eyes open to see that it was bright out. One glance at the window with the sun shining through it showed that not only was it morning, but it was fairly late in the morning. Dale had slept in later than he usually did, and he still felt like he hadn’t gotten any sleep at all.

“Dale, Dale, Dale, Dale!” Warren emphasized each time he said his name with another bounce on his chest. “Wake up!”

“I’m, up, I’m up,” Dale grabbed Warren’s arms and held him down to keep him from bouncing. “What’s got you so excited?”

“The brownies made brownies.” Warren said excitedly. “And Lena made lemon bread.”

Now that caught Dale’s interest. “Lemon bread?” Most everything that Lena made in the kitchen tasted fantastic, but her lemon bread was one of Dale’s personal favorites. It was sweet, but not so much so that he felt he was eating dessert for breakfast. Warren wasn’t as fond of the treat as Dale was, but Warren loved scraping the glaze off of the bread. 

“Alright, I’m coming,” Dale pushed his brother off of him and quickly got out of his bed. The two of them raced downstairs, practically tripping over each other as they went. Dale was a lot faster than Warren, but Warren was really good at scampering in front of him, forcing Dale to stop to avoid tripping over his brother. Ultimately, Dale beat Warren into the kitchen, but it was far closer than he would like to admit.

Dale’s mouth practically began watering when he smelled the fresh lemon bread. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was. Dale took a seat at the table and grabbed a slice. The bread was still warm and covered in a lot of glaze, just how he liked it. 

Warren climbed onto the chair next to him. He knelt and reached past the lemon bread for a plate of brownies that Lena must have cut and put out earlier. Dale eyed the brownies cautiously. Lena didn’t normally leave desserts out in the morning, especially when she couldn’t supervise how much Warren ate, but a whole plate was left out unattending.

It wasn’t uncommon for Lena to make treats for a special occasion, so it wasn’t unreasonable to think that was the case this morning. However, Dale doubted it was as simple as that. She had made his favorite breakfast treat, and also left out ingredients for the brownies to make a treat that Warren would enjoy more. This just felt a lot like a bribe, and Dale knew exactly what the bribe was for.

“Warren, do you know what today is?” Dale asked as he took a big bite of his slice of lemon bread.

“Of course I do,” Warren grinned broadly. “It’s your birthday, right?”

“Yeah, it is,” Dale grinned back, though it felt a little forced. He just couldn’t bring himself to be excited about his birthday, not this year. “Do you know how old I am?”

“Uh, you’re eighteen, right?” Warren guessed, though he didn’t sound certain.

Dale nodded. “Do you know what that means?”

Warren stuffed a whole brownie in his mouth and shook his head. “Is it special?”

“You could say that,” Dale picked at the lemon bread. He still wanted it, but it didn’t taste as good as it normally did. Dale was sure that there was nothing wrong with the bread himself, his mood was just ruining everything. “Hey, I’ve got work to do. Do you still want to help me?”

“Yes!” Warren grabbed another brownie before he jumped off the chair. Dale put his slice of lemon bread down. He could always come back to it later.

“Come on, we’ve got to go back to the attic,” Dale said. “I’ve got some things I need to move to the spare room.” He said the spare room, but it wasn’t going to be very ‘spare’ soon.

“Why are we moving stuff?” Warren asked.

Dale sighed and rubbed the back of his head as he tried to figure out how to say this without upsetting Warren. Or even just how to say it without upsetting himself. Dale wasn’t quite ready to tell Warren what needed to happen, but he could stand to tell him why it had to happen.

“Did you know that there are spells around the attic that protect the ones inside?” Dale asked. Warren looked at him with wide eyes.

“Spells? Really?” Warren always got excited at the thought of something magical. His goal in life seemed to be to learn about everything magical that he possibly could. Sometimes Dale wondered why this love for magic had skipped his genes. He liked it fine, but he wasn’t as obsessed with these things as Warren was, or their parents were.

“There’s a condition though,” Dale frowned. The two of them entered the attic and he sat down on his bed. Warren didn’t know what was on his mind, but he seemed to know enough to recognize that Dale was really upset about something. Warren bit his lip and grabbed Scorch from off of Dale’s bed. He hugged his dragon tightly as he stared almost fearfully up at his brother.

“What condition?” Warren asked. “Did we do something wrong and break the spells?”

“No, no, nothing like that,” Dale assured his brother. “The spells will stay in place as long as a child is in the room. The problem is that the spells only protect kids. They’ll go away if an adult is in the room.”

“No adults?” Warren looked down at Scorch and played timidly with its wings. “But...aren’t you an adult now?”

Dale opened his arm and Warren practically dove into his embrace. Dale lifted Warren up and sat him on his lap. “Yeah, I am, which means that I can’t sleep up here with you anymore.”

“But...but this is your room,” Warren objected. “We’ve always shared a room.” Warren looked around, as though he hoped that somewhere in the room he would see something that would allow Dale to stay with him. “Can’t we just find different spells?”

“None that are as good as the ones in place.” Dale said. He would know, as he’d spent the better part of this past year trying to find anything that would allow him to stay in the attic with Warren. “You’ll be safest up here on your own.”

“But I don’t want to be on my own.” Warren pouted. “I don’t want you to leave.”

Dale didn’t want to go anywhere either, but he felt the need to reassure his brother, which meant that he needed to at least pretend that he wasn’t as upset as his brother was, for Warren’s sake. “Hey, it’s not like I’m leaving forever,” Dale said in what he hoped was a light tone. “I’m just going downstairs, not on the other side of the country.”

“...I guess so,” Warren said reluctantly.

“Come on,” Dale set Warren on the bed next to him and stood up. “You still up for helping me?”

Warren sighed dramatically as he grabbed Dale’s blanket and pulled it over his shoulder. “I’ll help, but just ‘cause you can’t do all this by yourself.”

Dale snorted and bent down to reach under his bed. He didn’t have a lot of personal belongings, and most of what he did have, such as all his books, he was more than happy to leave them in the attic. However, he did have a chest full of things that he didn’t want to let Warren get his hands on. Namely his shotgun. The chest was locked, and, upon Lena’s insistence, all of the bullets were locked away in her room, but it still wasn’t smart to leave a gun lying around in a child’s room. Especially when that kid was as curious as Warren was.

Dale had been reluctant about keeping his shotgun under his bed, but Lena and Stan had both though that if he was going to have a gun, he should keep it near him. And Warren knew better than to go through Dale’s things. Warren may be curious but he wasn’t stupid. Warren had been told dozens of times that there were things around the house that he might be tempted to mess with, but if he did then they wouldn’t trust him with other things around Fablehaven. Anything potentially dangerous around the house was a bit of a test for Warren, a way for him to prove that he could be trusted with Fablehaven’s secrets.

Warren knew what Dale kept under his bed, but he had never even tried to look through them. Warren was intrigued by Dale’s gun, but he knew that if he ever tried to play with it, then he could say goodbye to any chance of him getting a gun of his own in the future.

Still, it was better to be safe than sorry.

“You ready to go?” Dale asked as he dragged out his chest and tried get a grip on it that wasn’t too awkward.

“I’m ready,” Warren jumped off the bed, dragging Dale’s blanket behind him. They both knew that there were blankets and pillows on the bed in his new room, but Dale had been given a tied fleece blanket by his parents nearly two years ago, just a few months before they left. It had red plaid on the top, and a navy blue on the bottom. It was his blanket, and Dale didn’t want to leave it behind. And he knew that when Warren moved out of the attic, he would take his own blanket, which was made with blue plaid and red fleece, with him.

Dale lead the way out of the attic and the two of them made their way back downstairs. Dale had gradually been moving his clothes into the room. With the blanket and chest, all of Dale’s things would be in his new room, and this little move would be official. Dale didn’t feel quite ready for this, but he didn’t have a choice. He had to keep Warren safe, even if at that moment the only way to make that happen was to have some distance from him.

Dale put his chest at the foot of the bed. Warren seemed to think that the best way to put the blanket over his shoulders on the bed was by jumping on top of it, so that was exactly what he did. Warren let Scorch fall from his arms, just so his hands were free for him to try to use Dale’s blanket as a parachute as he belly flopped on the bed. It didn’t work very well, but Warren had fun with it.

“Alright, you can jump on my bed later,” Dale pulled his blanket away from his brother. “You’ve still got those brownies waiting for you, don’t you?” And Dale had his lemon bread.

“Yes!” Warren jumped off the bed and raced to the door. 

“Hold up,” Dale frowned and picked up Scorch from his bed. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Warren skidded to a stop and looked back at him. “Uh, nope.” Warren shook his head. “It’s not fair that I get all the protections. You need to be safe too, so Scorch is going to stay with you for a little bit, until you can take care of yourself.”

Dale’s breath caught in his throat as he looked at the plushed dragon. “You’re...letting me have him?” Dale knew that it was just temporary, probably for just a few days, but considering Warren hadn’t gone a single night without Scorch right next to him since he had gotten it, it meant a lot.

“He’ll keep you safe,” Warren said confidently. “Nothing will mess with you if you have a dragon.” 

“No, I guess they wouldn’t.” Dale chuckled and adjusted Scorch’s position on his bed. He had never been so happy to have a stuffed animal, even if it was only a temporary situation. He had worried that Warren would be mad at him for moving to a different room, but Warren seemed to be more concerned about Dale’s safety than his own loneliness. 

Dale was being reminded more and more often just how amazing a brother he had. Even when Dale had a lot of work to do and didn’t have a lot of time for his brother, Warren didn’t hold it against him, he actually tried to find any opportunity that he could to help him. It was hard to look at a child and know what kind of person they were going to become, but Dale thought he could say with confidence that whoever Warren was, it would be somebody incredible, because that was just who he was.


	6. Chapter 6

Dale zipped his backpack closed and slung it over his shoulder. He didn’t normally use backpacks, as any tools that his work required were too big and awkward to carry in a bag. Until recently he hadn’t had a backpack at all, but the last time that Ruth came by she had brought some old school supplies with her, including Sophie’s old backpack. Dale had never needed it before, but at that moment he wasn’t just tidying up the yard and maintaining the forest paths. He had a far more important job to do.

“Where are you going?” Dale grimaced and turned to see Warren glaring at him with all the curiosity that a child could muster, which was a lot.

“Out,” Dale answered shortly.

“You already worked today,” Warren crossed his arms defiantly. “Lena says you’re not supposed to work too much.”

“I’m not working, I’m doing something else,” Dale said. He stood up and walked past his brother. Warren scowled and followed behind him. Dale rolled his eyes and continued on his way to the front door. Warren was right at his heel. Dale hoped that they would pass by Ruth or Lena, that they would stop or distract Warren so he could leave, but he wasn’t so lucky. Warren was ready to follow him outside.

Dale sighed and reluctantly stopped in the doorway. He turned to look at his brother, who was staring up at him. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I want to go with you,” Warren said stubbornly. “I can help.”

“Warren, we’ve been over this,” Dale said irritably. “You can’t come,”

“You never let me help,” Warren stomped his feet in frustration, and Dale nearly felt like doing the same thing.

“Yeah, because you’re just a kid,” Dale said. “I promise, when you’re older you’ll be able to help so much that you’ll be begging to have a day off. Until then, you know the rules, you don’t get to leave the yard, end of story.” Dale’s tone was harsher than he would normally have towards his brother, but they’d had a nearly identical conversation just two weeks ago. He was not in the mood to do this whole thing all over again.

“It’s not fair,” Warren glared at him.

“Yeah, well, neither is having a little brother who won’t stop pestering me,” Dale snapped. “Life isn’t fair. Deal with it.”

“You’re such a jerk!” Warren screamed and shoved Dale before running back upstairs into the attic.

Dale groaned and ran a hand through his hair. He hated it when Warren was mad at him. It seemed like everything he did or said these past few weeks set Warren off. If Warren wasn’t screaming or yelling at Dale, he was ignoring him completely. Dale didn’t know how to deal with this moodiness, which was frustrating, because Lena had told him nearly a dozen times that he was the only one that Warren was going to listen to.

Dale just shook his head and pushed open the door. He adjusted his grip on his backpack and made his way across the yard. Dale all but stormed down the path towards the edge of the yard, but by the time he was halfway there his aggression had died down enough that he had slowed down. He was still incredibly frustrated with his brother, that wasn’t just going to go away after five seconds, but he felt more embarrassed than anything.

Dale was irritated, but he didn’t even really know what he was so irritated about. Warren had been acting ridiculous and unreasonable for awhile, but he was just a little kid. Dale was three times his brother’s age, and he was letting his brother’s mood affect him far more than he really should. Just because Warren was a child didn’t mean that Dale had to act like one too.

Dale just didn’t know what to do about Warren. He didn’t want his brother to be so upset with him, but when Dale tried to do something he had only ended up making things worse, and that brought them to where they were now.

Warren, like a lot of kids, just wanted to grow up really fast. Dale tried to be patient with his brother’s desire to help, because he loved how kindhearted Warren was. The kid was always so eager to help, but he was still so young, there was only so much that he could and should do. Dale didn’t want to discourage Warren and make him think that he shouldn’t help others, but there were still some things that he couldn’t let the young boy do. There was a balance between encouraging Warren and keeping him safe, and Dale hadn’t been able to find that balance yet.

Dale reached the edge of the yard and crossed his arms as he looked up at the treehouse. It was still a work in progress, but aside from some last minute additions it was coming along pretty well. Dale felt proud of how good the treehouse looked, as he’d never made anything like this before, and he’d even been able to finish it on time.

As pleased as he was with the treehouse, Dale felt like cruel irony was messing around with him. The whole reason why Dale had made this treehouse in the first place was for Warren. Dale hadn’t failed to notice that Warren felt a little trapped being confined to just the house and yard. Warren wanted to have more freedoms, partly because he wanted to help out around Fablehaven, and partly because he had a hunger for adventure. A few months ago Dale had thought of making the treehouse. It was at the edge of the yard, so while Warren would still be safe, it would hopefully give the illusion that he was somewhere a little more exciting than their backyard.

Dale couldn’t just drop his work and focus entirely on the treehouse, so it was just something that he did for an hour or two after work, or during his days off. However, Dale had given himself a deadline, and the closer he got to it the more time he spent working on it, and he was pretty confident that this was the very thing that had triggered Warren’s irritation with him.

Warren didn’t know about the treehouse, which was the whole point, as this was supposed to be a surprise. Warren loved spending time with Dale, and was extremely disappointed that it just wasn’t happening. When Dale couldn’t give Warren any good reason why he had to work later, and stay out during his lunch breaks, that disappointment just turned into anger. The more that Dale didn’t spend time with him, the more irritated that Warren got.

And now, Dale was ignoring Warren again. He would feel horrible about it most any day, but today, a day that should be all about Warren, it made Dale feel like the worst brother in the world.

Dale grimaced and quickly climbed up the wooden boards up into the treehouse. He pushed the trap door open. Dale climbed up a few more rungs so that his upper body was poking into the treehouse. Dale rested an arm on the floor of the treehouse to steady himself as he tried to take the backpack off. It was a bit of a struggle, but Dale was able to figure it out. Dale tossed the backpack into the treehouse and then quickly climbed down the tree. He had to talk to Warren, make things up to him.

Dale ran back into the house. He didn’t stop running until he was at the top of the stairs that lead to the attic, at which point he finally stopped. Dale caught his breath and stared at the door for a moment. He wanted to talk to Warren, but he didn’t really know what he should say. After thinking about it for a moment Dale realized that he was procrastinating, and that he just needed to suck it up and do this.

Dale sighed and opened the door to the attic. He saw Warren lying on the ground in the middle of the attic floor. Warren’s feet were sticking up into the air and he was trying to balance the unicorn rocking horse on his feet, while Scorch was somehow balancing on the seat.

Dale smiled slightly in amusement. “I don’t think that’s how you’re supposed to play with that thing,”

Warren started in surprise and ended up losing balance with the rocking horse. Warren cried out in alarm as the unicorn rocking horse fell right on top of him. Dale bit his lip to try to hide his amusement, but when he saw that Warren wasn’t hurt he just let himself laugh.

“It’s not funny,” Warren sat up and pushed the rocking horse off of him. Hepouted at Dale. “And there isn’t a supposed to way to play with toys.”

Dale bit his knuckle to try to stifle his laughter. “Right, you’re right, of course.” Dale entered the attic and closed the door behind him. He picked up Scorch, which had fallen off of the unicorn when it had fallen, and handed it to Warren, who clung to it tightly. Dale sat down next to Warren, but not so close that his brother would feel crowded. Sometimes Warren was clingy and outgoing, and other times he was more withdrawn and wanted his personal space. Dale had learned that it was best to let Warren make the call on what kind of interaction he needed at the moment.

“What are you hiding up here for?” Dale asked, even though he knew exactly why Warren was up here. “Are you having a unicorn day?” That was the term that they had come up with for when Warren was feeling a little overwhelmed and crowded, because unicorns, while usually extremely kind and gentle, were often shy about being around others.

“Not really,” Warren said, though he didn’t meet Dale’s eyes. Warren was pretty open about his unicorn days, so Dale had no reason to believe that he was being lied to. Something was definitely bothering Warren though.

“Well, are you still mad at me?” Dale asked. “You know I didn’t mean what I said earlier, about you being a pest.”

“I know,” Warren shoved his face against Scorch. “But you’re still a jerk.”

“Well, I can’t argue with that,” Dale rubbed the back of his neck. “I know I’ve been gone a lot lately, and I’m sorry for that. I’ve just had some stuff to do.”

“You always have stuff to do,” Warren groaned and dramatically fell back to lie on the floor again. “You’re so busy.”

“I promise, that’s going to change,” Dale swore.

Warren rolled over so he was lying on his side, his back to Dale, and curled his legs up closer to his chest. “You always say that, but it never does.”

Dale winced slightly. Warren was really calling him out today. “Yeah, but I mean it this time.”

“Sure,” Warren said, his tone showing just how much he believed Dale, which was not at all.

“I’m being serious here,” Dale grabbed Warren’s arm and rolled him back over so that they were facing each other. “Will you believe me if I show you what I’ve just finished working on?”

Warren slowly pulled Scorch away from his face and looked up at Warren. “...Maybe,” Warren didn’t sound all that confident, but it was good enough an agreement for Dale.

“Come on, then,” Dale stood up and then held both of his hands out to his brother. Warren looked at the hands and gave a small smile as he grabbed onto them with his own. Warren also sat up and placed his feet firmly on the ground. Dale smirked and pulled at the same time as Warren jumped, which made the kid practically leap into the air.

Warren giggled as he landed on the ground. He always loved it when Dale did that. It was one of the few things that he liked about being the little brother. “Where are we going?”

“You’ll just have to wait and see.” Dale took his brother’s hand and lead him downstairs. The two of them went outside together and to the far side of the yard. Warren looked confused, as there wasn’t a lot of things they could do on this side of the yard, but he didn’t say anything. Warren just continued to follow Dale. It wasn’t too long before they reached a point where they could see the treehouse, and Warren reacted immediately.

“Is that...A treehouse?!” Warren giggled and ran to the tree. Dale shook his head with a chuckle and rushed to catch up with him. By the time Dale got to the tree, Warren had already scurried up the wooden planks. “This is awesome!”

“Glad you like it,” Dale felt himself relax as he climbed back up into the treehouse. He hadn’t realized how nervous he had been about getting his brother’s approval. “It would have been a shame if I spent all that time making something that you hated.”

Warren, who had been exploring the treehouse, turn to look at Dale in quiet awe. “You...you built this?”

“Well, Stan helped a bit,” Dale admitted. Stan was much more familiar with building things than Dale was, but he had definitely been the one to do most of heavy work. “But, yeah, this is what’s been keeping me so busy. I really wanted to get it done by today.”

“Today? Why?” Warren asked with sincere curiosity, and it just about broke Dale’s heart.

“Are you really telling me that you don’t know what today is?” Dale knelt down, bringing himself to Warren’s level. “I don’t believe it. So if you didn’t forget, did you really think that I had?” 

“...I don’t know,” Warren muttered as he shuffled his feet. “You’re so busy, and things have been really weird lately.”

“C’mere,” Dale took his brother’s hand and pulled him closer. “Hey, I don’t care how busy I am, I’m never going to forget your birthday. If I ever do, you have my permission to call me much worse than a jerk. Lena would probably be more than happy to give you a few colorful suggestions.” If Dale ever forgot Warren’s birthday, Lena would give him an earful before Warren ever could.

“So...if you’re done with this, then you really are going to be around more,” Warren grinned excitedly.

“I told you I would,” Dale said. “But you know better than I do just how bad I am about not working. I’m going to be counting on you to keep me in line.”

“Always,” Warren agreed eagerly. Dale felt like Warren was far too forgiving of his negligence, but he wasn’t about to complain about it. Warren bit his lip somewhat sheepishly. “And I’ll try not to get so upset when you are super busy.”

“Honestly, that would be the best thing you could do to help me.” Dale said. Warren’s face lit up. Nothing made him happier than knowing that he was being helpful. Dale would do anything to keep that happy grin on his brother’s face. “You know, we still have some time until Lena calls us for dinner. Do you want to work on a puzzle for a bit?”

“Yes!” Warren said excitedly. Dale chuckled and reached for the backpack that he had tossed haphazardly on the floor earlier. He opened it up and took out the books and puzzles that he had shoved in there earlier. Dale put the books and most of the puzzles on the little bookcase. He brought a single puzzle to the little table in the middle of the treehouse. Dale handed the puzzle box to Warren, who happily dumped the pieces out on the surface of the table. The two of them got to work sorting through the pieces, and just enjoyed each other’s company.


	7. Chapter 7

It was hot that day. Hotter than it normally got in the summer. Dale was always exhausted after a hard day’s work, and it was always worse in the summer. On particularly hot days it was normal for Dale to have to take breaks frequently. He hated not being able to get as much work done as he possibly could, but he had learned about ten years ago that he wouldn’t be of any good to anybody if he got heat exhaustion because he worked himself too hard.

Dale was used to taking things a little easier when it was hot out, but he didn’t think he had ever worked on a day as hot as this. He could feel his skin being burned by the sun, and he was constantly sweating. He was careful to keep himself hydrated, but there was only so much that water could do. Dale took breaks regularly, but he still felt exhausted and even a little faint. Shortly after Dale began to feel nauseous, he realized that he needed to cut his losses. It was a little earlier than he would normally break for lunch, but he knew that he would only get worse if he insisted on working. Lena would kill him if he returned to the house with heat exhaustion, or even worse, heat stroke, before it was even noon.

Dale made sure that his work was at a place where it would be safe to leave it alone for a bit before he packed things up and made his way back to the main house. He was just glad that his work for the day hadn’t taken him too far from the house. It only took him about fifteen minutes to get to the yard. It would have taken him even less time, but Dale didn’t want to push himself. Warren would probably find it hilarious if he made himself sick when he was going out of his way to keep that from happening.

When Dale reached the yard he could hear overjoyed screeches and laughter coming from the side of the house. Dale smiled and changed his destination to the pool next to the house. Leave it to Warren to have a blast on the hottest day of the year. Warren would never let a little heat get him down. 

Dale reached the pool, and immediately laughed when he saw the state of things. Warren and Lena were chasing each other around the water, splashing and laughing as they went. The edges of the pool were darkened and wet more than two feet on all sides. Dale had no idea how the two of them had managed to splash around so much to soak everything nearby, but somehow he wasn’t the least bit surprised about it. 

“You look like you’re having fun,” Dale laughed. Warren eagerly turned towards him, and his expression noticeably brightened. 

“Dale!” Warren began hopping and spinning around in the pool.

“You’re back early,” Lena commented, though there was a slight concern in her eyes. “Is anything wrong?”

“Just a little tired,” Dale kicked his shoes off and set them aside far enough away from the pool that they wouldn’t get wet. He took off his socks and shoved them inside his shoes before he went closer to the pool. “And hot. I just thought I would take a break for a bit.”

The stern and relieved look in Lena’s eyes showed that she knew exactly what he was talking about. “There’s some iced lemonade on the table over there,” Lena gestured to where the pitcher and glasses were. Dale gratefully poured himself a glass. He sat on one of the chairs around the pool and just relaxed for a few minutes, drinking the lemonade and cooling off a bit. He knew that he should get out of the sun and probably go inside, but he wanted to enjoy his brother’s company for a little bit.

Because he was still outside, and it was still hot, it took longer for Dale to cool down than it would if he had just gone inside. Eventually Dale felt good enough to join the other two closer to the pool. Dale rolled up his jeans a bit, and went to sit at the edge of the pool. His pants got a little wet, but it felt really nice to soak his feet and legs this way.

Warren immediately swam over to join him. “Do you want to come play with us?” Dale wasn’t normally that big on swimming but the water felt really nice, and he always had a hard time saying no to Warren.

“What are you guys playing?” Dale asked. From what he had seen, it just looked like Warren and Lena had been playing tag or something.

“We’re playing revenge of the naiads!” Warren announced proudly. He dove under the water and used his legs to push himself off the wall to give himself a boost as he swam to the middle of the pool. 

“Naiads?” Dale laughed and looked at Lena, who looked just as amused as he was. “Have you been telling him those stories of yours again?”

“He can’t get enough of it,” Lena said. “He’s been wanting to pretend to be a naiad for awhile now.” Dale didn’t think he would ever understand his brother’s obsession with cruel magical creatures.

“How’s he doing with it?” Dale asked.

“Honestly, for somebody who has never met an immortal naiad, I would say he’s doing surprisingly well,” Lena said.

At that moment Warren jumped out of the water and tackled Lena. “No!” He cried out in a high pitched voice. “You can’t talk to the human, you traitor.” 

Dale put his fist in his mouth to keep himself from laughing. Lena wasn’t kidding. Warren was definitely the best eight year old naiad that he had ever seen. I guess I don’t have to guess what human you’re saying I am.” If Warren was playing naiad because he had been inspired by Lena’s story, there was really only one human that he could be.

“No talking, Patton Burgess,” Warren said the name like an insult, with as much disgust as he could. He was really getting into this role of his. Warren swam in front of Lena and held his arms out as though to protect her from Dale. “You’ve corrupted my sister enough as it is.”

Dale chuckled. “You can’t keep me from Lena. If you could, you would have already done something about it.”

“Well, you’ve never been this bold before,” Warren dove back down into the water, and faster than Dale could expect he swam over to Dale and grabbed his legs. Dale knew what Warren was up to, but before he could pull back the kid smirked and pushed off against the wall. Dale let out an alarmed sound as he was pulled down into the water.

Dale tried to wrap his arms around Warren to restrain him, but the kid was too wiggly. Dale had no choice but to let Warren go. The two of them swam to the surface. Dale glared coldly at his brother, who just grinned mischievously at him. “Alright, you want to do this? I call for a change of roles, Warren Patton Burgess.”

Warren’s eyes widened in alarm. He tried to swim out of Dale’s reach, but he didn’t succeed. “No!” Warren cried out as Dale grabbed him and pushed him under the water. While he had Warren surprised and thrown off, Dale wrapped his arms around the kid’s chest and held him tightly. Dale stood up, lifting Warren out of the water. Warren grunted and shouted in frustration, but he couldn’t do any more than kick his legs at the water.

“Hey, naiads are supposed to drown people, not pull them out of the water,” Warren whined.

“So I switched things up a bit,” Dale said. “It catches people off guard.”

Warren bit his lip. He stopped kicking and held still for a moment. Dale knew he had to be up to something, but he didn’t know what it could be. A moment later Warren curled his legs and rested them against Dale’s stomach. He shifted them around a little bit before he brought his legs up to his chest and then very quickly kicked them down against Dale’s stomach. Dale grunted in pain and loosened his grip on Warren just enough for him to pull out of his arms and dive back into the water. 

“Wh-what was that all about?” Dale wrapped his arms around his stomach.

Warren swam to the surface and smiled somewhat shyly. “I switched things up a bit,” 

“What made you think that this was a good idea?” Dale glared at his brother, and then looked over towards Lena. Warren wasn’t necessarily a violent person, but Lena kind of was. Dale wouldn’t be surprised if Lena had been teaching Warren some self defense moves, and just hadn’t gotten around to teaching him when exactly it would be appropriate to use those skills.

Lena just laughed and pulled Warren back. “Good job remembering to go for the soft spots. Knock the breath out of them, but don’t do permanent damage unless you know they’ll do the same to you.” 

Dale groaned and turned all of his irritability towards Lena. “Don’t encourage him.”

“Hey, we both know that he’ll go on plenty of adventures one of these days,” Lena smiled when she spoke, but her tone left no room for argument. “I would rather teach him how to be prepared than ignore the inevitable and let him be caught unawares.”

Dale didn’t like the thought of Warren learning how to fight, he was still so young, and he got into enough trouble as it was. However, he didn’t argue with Lena about because he knew she was right. Warren was a fighter, an adventurer. It was the Burgess gene (the gene that Dale was relieved had apparently skipped him over). 

“Next time can you at least tell me what you plan on teaching my brother?” Dale asked, partly so he could be prepared for how Warren could attack him, and partly so that he could know for sure that Lena wasn’t trying to teach Warren too much too quickly. Dale wasn’t an adventurer, but he was a human, and he had been one his whole life. He knew more about how fragile children could be than Lena did. 

And Dale didn’t like the thought of being out of the loop when it came to his brother.

Lena’s playful but stern eyes softened. “Of course,” Dale had known she would agree, but he still felt relieved to hear her words confirm it.

“Oh, Lena’s been teaching me how to swim like a naiad,” Warren began to hop in the water. “I can swim super fast. Do you want to see?”

“Sure, kiddo,” Dale smiled. At least he knew why Warren moved so naturally in the water. There was no better swimming teacher than a naiad. “You think you can teach me a thing or two?”

Warren smiled excitedly as he jumped into teaching Dale how to hold his breath underwater for a really long time, because apparently that was the most important rule for swimming. Dale knew most of what Warren was telling him, as Lena had been his swimming teacher as well, but he kept his knowledge to himself. Warren seemed to really enjoy sharing what he knew, especially with his older brother. 

Besides, Dale knew that besides experience, teaching was the best teacher. If Warren could properly demonstrate the things he had been taught, then maybe they would be more firmly set in his mind. Dale didn’t like the thought of his brother going on dangerous adventures, but if him being a skilled swimmer could end up saving his life someday, then he was all for Warren learning everything he could.

Just so long as Lena’s lessons were child-friendly.


	8. Chapter 8

Dale let out a slow sigh as he slumped on the couch and relaxed. It was Sunday, which was the designated half day at Fablehaven. They couldn’t afford to take a full day off from working, as life around Fablehaven moved on whether they were working or not. However, if they didn’t have some break during the week then they would all just end up working themselves to death, and then what good could they possibly be?

Dale didn’t like to rest and take breaks when he was supposed to be doing something, but he had never even thought about working on Saturday afternoons, and that day was no different. It had been a really long week, and Dale didn’t think he had ever been so relieved to just take half a day off. It always felt really nice to get some sleep after a hard day’s work, but it felt even more incredible to just sit back and relax, without being so exhausted that he couldn’t even stay awake.

It was just nice to not have to worry about anything.

“Dale?” He turned towards the living room door to see Warren looking at him in slightly dazed confusion. “What are you doing here?”

Dale frowned slightly at his brother. “Where else would I be?”

“Uh, working?” Warren said somewhat cautiously, as though he was already questioning his first thought. “It’s really early...isn’t it? What time is it?”

“It’s almost three,” Dale said. “And it’s Sunday.” Warren looked extremely confused for a few moments, though Dale didn’t know if it was because he hadn’t understood what he had said, or he didn’t believe it. Warren was quiet for so long that Dale was starting to get concerned that something was wrong when the boy blinked and shifted his gaze ever so slightly so he was meeting Dale’s eyes. Dale hadn’t even noticed that Warren hadn’t quite been looking directly at him until that moment. Something was definitely going on.

“Right, right, Sunday,” Warren yawned and rubbed at his eyes. He looked even more exhausted than Dale felt.

“Are you doing okay? You’re not sick, are you?” Dale sat up, feeling his stomach tightening at the thought.

Warren shook his head. “No, I’m just a little tired, I guess.” That much was easy enough to believe. Dale was just pretty sure that there was more to it than just fatigue.

“When did you go to sleep last night?” Dale asked. He was going to get to the bottom of this. “What time did you wake up?”

“I, uh, I don’t know,” Warren said, and that confused look came right back into his eyes. “It was a while ago, but I just never really felt like leaving my bed.” So Warren had spent all day just lying in bed? He hadn’t even been playing in the attic? That really wasn’t like him, even if he was sick.

Dale was really concerned, but he knew that if he showed that concern that Warren would just push him away. Warren had always hated being coddled, and that was just becoming more and more evident the older that he got. Dale wasn’t just going to let things be though. He was going to keep an eye on his brother, and make sure that he was taken care of without making Warren feel babied.

“Have you eaten anything today?” Dale asked, though he was pretty sure of the answer. If Warren had only just forced himself out of bed, he probably hadn’t set foot in the kitchen at all.

Warren’s slightly sheepish expression was enough of an answer for Dale. He sighed and got to his feet. “Come on, let’s go see if there’s anything to eat.” Dale put his hand on Warren’s shoulder, and frowned when the kid made a strange face and pulled away from his grip.

“I can do it on my own.” Warren muttered quietly. He moved away from Dale and went into the kitchen by himself. Dale wanted to follow him, but he was too shocked by what had just happened. After standing around like an idiot for a moment, Dale shook his head and went back to sit on the couch. If Warren really wanted to be left alone, Dale would step back for a bit before letting his overprotectiveness take over all over again.

Dale had been planning on backing off for five or ten minutes, but he just couldn’t seem to relax. After what couldn’t have been any longer than two minutes Dale sighed and made his way to follow Warren into the kitchen. When he got there he was surprised to see that Warren wasn’t there, but Lena and Ruth were.

“Where’s Warren?” Dale asked.

“He was here a minute ago,” Ruth said. “He ran off pretty quickly though.”

“Did he grab anything to eat?” Dale asked, though he was pretty sure he knew the answer. “Even just an apple?”

“I’m afraid not, kiddo,” Lena smiled gently at Dale. She likely could tell that he felt distressed, and was trying to calm him. She was good at that kind of thing. “I wouldn’t worry about Warren, he’s old enough to grab something when he’s hungry.” Dale wasn’t so sure, but he knew better than to argue with Lena about it.

Dale sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, alright.” He made his way out of the kitchen. Despite Lena’s assurances, Dale was even more worried about his brother than he had been before. He was acting really funny.

Dale wondered if Warren had gone back to bed, or at least back to the attic. Because it was as good a place to search he went ahead and made his way to the stars. He was ready to run right up the stairs, but stopped in his tracks when he saw Warren splayed face down against the steps.

Dale felt his breath catch in his throat. Had Warren tripped and hurt himself? “Are you okay?” Dale cautiously went up the stairs, going around Warren. When he was on the steps above his brother Dale crouched and leaned forward, trying to get a good look at the kid’s face.

“‘M fine,” Warren mumbled. His body loosened as he let himself slide down the stairs. Once he was at the bottom Warren groaned and lifted himself off the ground just enough to shift his body away from the stairs and flop on the level ground. 

“You know, you’re really not inspiring much confidence here.” Dale hurried down the stairs and knelt at his brother’s side. Dale put a hand on Warren’s forehead, ignoring his brother’s flinch when he did so. Dale didn’t want to make his brother uncomfortable, but if he was sick and that was what was making him so lethargic, he wanted to know about it. “It doesn’t feel like you have a temperature,”

“Yeah, ‘cause I’m not sick,” Warren rolled over so he was lying on his back. He rested his arm over his eyes. “I told you, I’m just tired. I just want to be alone.”

Dale frowned. “Is that why you left the kitchen? Because Lena and Ruth were there?”

Warren sighed and nodded his head. Dale could feel the knot that had been tying up in his stomach loosen. He had an idea what was going on.

“Is it a unicorn day today?” Dale asked. Warren shrugged, which was answer enough. Warren normally just came out and said when he was having an off day, but he was even more open about his non-unicorn days. A shrug was just as good as a verbal confirmation.

Dale sighed and brushed Warren’s hair out of his face. “Alright, if you need space, I’ll give you some space. But promise me that you’ll get something to eat, okay?” Warren closed his eyes and nodded. Dale reluctantly stood up and left his brother alone at the base of the stairs. He returned back to the kitchen and sat down at the table.

“Did you find your brother?” Lena asked. She didn’t sound all that concerned, but she wasn’t completely uninterested. 

“Yeah,” Dale rested his head head in his hands. “He’s having a unicorn day,”

“Ah,” Lena nodded in understanding. “Yes, I thought that might be the case.” Dale lifted his gaze to meet Lena’s. He eyed her cautiously.

“You’ve been around Warren more than I have,” Dale said, and maybe someday his stomach would stop twisting up with guilt every time he said this. “Is this normal for him?” Dale had an idea what Warren’s off days looked like, but because he worked most every single day, he hadn’t actually seen what Warren was like during the days when he was feeling off. Most of Dale’s experience had been with the after effects of Warren’s bad days, when he was emotionally tired, but beginning to get better. Lena probably knew better what Warren’s unicorn days were like overall.

“Well, that depends,” Lena said gently. “What is he like now?”

“Uh, he said that he’s been hanging out in bed all day,” Dale said. “He still seems kind of tired, almost confused. He really doesn’t want to be around anybody right now.”

“And he hasn’t eaten anything either,” Lena commented. “Those are all perfectly normal for Warren, but it’s not common that they all happen on the same day. This is definitely one of the worse ones.” 

Dale groaned and pulled slightly at his hair. He was not feeling very reassured. Lena sat down next to Dale and took his hand. “I promise, Warren is going to be just fine, it’s just going to take a little bit of time.”

“Yeah, okay, fine,” Dale frowned. “I just hate feeling so useless.”

“I know,” Lena said. Dale looked towards her and saw her gentle smile. “But you can’t protect Warren from everything, not even from himself.”

Dale sighed and pulled his hand away from Lena. “He’s just a kid, he shouldn’t have to need protection from himself.” His tone was sharper than he meant it to be. Not because he was mad at Lena, but because he was frustrated with himself. He knew that she was right, but that didn’t make him feel any better. Warren was his little brother, it was Dale’s job to keep him safe and happy. What good was he if he couldn’t even do that?


	9. Chapter 9

Dale cracked his eyes open and groaned. He rolled over and pulled his blanket over his face. He just needed five more minutes of sleep, and he would be fine. Actually, just another single moment would be enough, he just didn’t want to get up right now. He knew he had work to do,but he was still in bed, and his alarm clock hadn’t gone off yet, so there was no reason why he had to wake up.

Dale let himself fall back into a half asleep state before he realized that what had woken him up was the brightness of the room. Dale frowned in confusion and reluctantly pulled his blanket away. He looked towards the window, and his eyes widened in alarm. It was far from bright, as the sun had only just started to rise, but there was still a big difference between pre dawn light and the darkness of night.

Dale hastily sat up. He felt his chest tighten anxiously. For nearly ten years he’d been awake and working at the crack of dawn. He could count on one hand the number of times that he had slept in since he had started actually working around Fablehaven full time. Sure, it was far from late, but it was at least later than he usually slept. He was always up and working by this time.

So if today was just like any other day, Dale would have been in a bit of a rush, but he wouldn’t have been all that worried about it. He could just work a little later in the day. However, he couldn’t do that today. It was the middle of winter, and one of Lena’s rules was that in winter, they had to be done working before sundown. She was always unhappy when they worked late, but she let it slide in the summer because she didn’t have as much need to worry about them freezing to death.

Not only could Dale not work later like he wanted to, but he would probably be delayed for yet another hour. Dale was supposed to be working around the yard today, but it had snowed quite a bit last night. Dale had known that he would have to get an earlier start than usual, because he would have to shovel a bunch of paths in the snow before he could even begin. 

Now he still had to shovel the snow, which could take an hour or so out of his work time. There was no way he would be able to get everything done, even if he skipped both breakfast and lunch, which Lena would never allow. Dale would just have to live with the fact that he was going to fall behind on his work.

Dale got dressed in record time, despite the fact that he was wearing multiple layers. As soon as he was ready to go outside, Dale ran out of his room and into the kitchen. He saw Lena already there, as well as Stan, though the older man seemed to be ready to walk out the door and begin his own work for the day.

“Dale, nice of you to join us.” Lena came up to Dale and practically pushed him into a chair. She could probably tell how anxious he was to get to work, and she was going to make sure that he ate a real breakfast, more than just a few granola bars. “How did it feel to sleep in a bit?”

“Horrible,” Dale grumbled. Sure, the little bit of extra sleep had felt nice at the time, but now he was just wishing that his alarm clock had gone off. Actually, come to think of it, why hadn’t his alarm clock gone off? Dale looked at Lena in suspicion. “What did you do?”

Lena laughed as she put a plate of hot eggs in front of Dale. “Don’t look at me, this was all Warren’s idea.”

Warren?” Dale frowned, feeling his anger being replaced with confusion. Warren hadn’t tried to keep him from working in years. What was going on? “Why would he do that? I have work to do.”

“That’s exactly why Warren turned off your alarm clock.” Lena put her hands on her hips and gave Dale a stern look. “You were talking so much yesterday about how much more work you had to do, so Warren decided that he wanted to help make things easier for you.”

“By delaying my work?” Dale frowned. He was irritated with Warren, of course, but more confused than anything. Warren was far from being the most responsible kid in the world, but he was usually pretty good at thinking things through before acting. And if Warren really did think that turning off Dale’s alarm clock so he would get more sleep would be a good idea, why wouldn’t Lena have stopped him? There wasn’t any why that she would actually think that this was a good plan.

Lena smiled, and that familiar mischevious look came into her eyes. “By helping you with your work.”

“What?” Dale glanced towards the front door. There was only so much work that Warren could do, especially work that Lena would allow him to do unsupervised. But Warren knew about Dale’s plans to shovel the snow before working. Was that how he was planning on helping? “Is he still outside?”

“Yes, but he should be done soon.” Lena said. “Just eat your breakfast, and then you can-Dale!” Lena’s tone became sharp when Dale got up from the table and ran towards the door. Lena may be completely supportive of Warren’s desire to help, but Dale wasn’t so sure. It was so cold out, and knowing Warren he hadn’t put on enough lawyers to keep him warm for a long period of time. How long had he been out there?

Dale opened up the front door, ready to drag Warren back inside and just finish the rest of the shoveling himself. Dale wasn’t wearing his gloves yet, but he ignored that and just ran out into the snow to find his brother.

Because Dale couldn’t immediately see Warren, but none of his work would take him out of the yard that day, he decided to check the barn. Dale shoved his hands in his pockets and ran towards the barn, following Warren’s footprints as he went. The snow wasn’t all that deep, but the paths that Warren had shoveled out were really helpful. They weren’t shoveled deep enough, and there was still an inch or two of snow on the shoveled path, but it was better than before. And at least Warren had shoveled out paths that were fairly wide. Dale may even be able to push a wheelbarrow through here if he needed to.

As Dale neared the barn he found that though Warren’s footprints lead to the barn, there was also a set of footprints coming back from there and heading towards the woods. Dale felt himself grow even more concerned and angry. It was one thing for Warren to be working in the yard on his own, and yet another thing for him to run off into the woods. If he had wandered off where he knew he wasn’t supposed to be, Warren was in so much trouble.

Dale hurried as he followed the path and Warren’s footprints. It took Dale a moment, but he realized that the shovelled path wasn’t leading straight towards the woods, but veering slightly away from it. What would Warren be doing over here? The only work that Dale did this far into the yard was when he chopped firewood.

...wait, it had been awhile since Dale had gathered more firewood. How much did they have stored up?

It wasn’t long before Dale saw Warren shoveling out a little clearing next to the stump that Dale used for chopping wood. Warren had known that they would need more firewood, and he was going out of his way to make it easier for Dale to do just that. Dale probably wouldn’t have considered their need for firewood at all, not until much later. Warren really was helping, far more than he probably thought he would.

“Oh, hey Dale,” Warren said cheerfully. His face was red, but other than that he didn’t look all that cold. There was a slight look of disappointment in Warren’s eyes. “You were supposed to get more sleep. I guess I didn’t help as much as I wanted to.”

Dale brought his fist to his mouth and bit it slightly to calm himself. Warren had gone out of his way to help him, and he felt bad because he didn’t think he had done enough. That just wasn’t right. Dale wanted to reassure his brother, but if he let his emotions get the best of him while he did so, he might make Warren think that he was mad at him, and that was definitely not the case.

Warren frowned slightly at Dale. “Are you mad at me?” Dale didn’t like how he had been taking a moment specifically to avoid leading Warren to think that he was upset with him, and his hesitence had done the same thing.

Dale shook his head. He knelt on the ground in front of Warren and just wrapped his arms around him. Dale heard Warren let out a noise of surprise. “Why would I be mad at you for being the best little brother in the world?” Dale meant what he said, but part of the reason why he said it out loud was because of the reaction he knew his brother would give. Warren groaned and tried to push him away, but Dale was a lot stronger than he was. Warren struggled for a few moments before he just gave up. As soon as Warren wasn’t trying to get away from him Dale released him from their embrace and chuckled at the embarrassed look on his face.

“You’re so dumb,” Warren complained as he hid his face in his hands. Dale didn’t know what he was trying to hide. If Warren’s face had gone red because Dale had embarrassed him, he wouldn’t even be able to tell because Warren’s face was already really red from the cold anyways.

Dale laughed and ruffled Warren’s hair, which just got another reaction out of him. Dale frequently felt proud of his brother, and he had so much affection for Warren all the time. It was hard for him to show how he felt though, especially since he never knew how Warren would receive his affection. Dale’s current solution was that he would exaggerate his affection and pride so that Warren would think that he was just being messed with.

It was just one of the perks of being an older brother. Dale could show off his pride as much as he wanted to, and fluster his brother at the same time. Was there anything better in the world?

“You look like you’re going to freeze to death out here.” Dale grabbed the shovel from Warren and stood up. “You ready to go inside?”

“Yeah, I’m done,” Warren yawned and stomped his feet slightly. “It took forever.”

“You did great though.” Dale put his arm over Warren’s shoulder . He lead them on the way back to the house. “You’ve really saved my butt today.” That wasn’t an exaggeration. Dale had forgotten all about firewood, which they did probably need. Warren had unintentionally reminded him of a very important chore he had to do, and Dale really appreciated it. 

“Do you think that Lena can make some hot chocolate?” Warren asked. Dalle didn’t know what the question was for. Lena probably gave them hot chocolate every single morning, whether it was winter or not. Knowing her, she likely already had some hot chocolate ready and waiting for them. She had probably made it half as a reward for Warren, for getting some work done so early in the morning, and half as a bribe to get Dale to stay inside and actually eat breakfast.

Oh, she was going to have his head for running off on her. 

“Why don’t we hurry up and see?” Warren stepped in front of his brother and knelt slightly. He heard Warren laugh before jumping onto his back. Dale adjusted his grip on his brother, holding him steady with one hand and keeping a grip on the shovel with the other hand. Once they were ready Dale began running back to the house. Because of the snow and the extra weight, as well as trying to keep the shovel from hitting either his legs or his brother in the face, the going was a little awkward. During his time at Fablehaven, Dale had been able to figure out how to move around under awkward circumstances, so he was able to make quick work of it.

Like Dale had half expected, Lena was waiting out on the porch for them, and, of course, she didn’t look happy. Dale grimaced and stopped in his tracks. “Hey, why don’t you go see if Lena has made that hot chocolate you wanted.” Lena wasn’t made at Warren for running off, so Dale didn’t feel guilty about sending his brother off into the front lines to diffuse the situation.

“Yes!” Warren practically jumped off of Dale’s back. He took back the shovel and ran so quickly to the house that it was a wonder that he didn’t trip in the snow. Dale followed cautiously behind him.

“Well, would you look at that,” Lena brushed some stray snow off of Warren’s shoulders. “It seems someone avoided freezing to death.” She looked up at Dale and raised an eyebrow at him. Now Dale was the one being messed with. It wasn’t as much fun on this end.

“I got to him just in time,” Dale kept his tone serious. “You should have seen him, Warren was practically frozen by the time I got there. It’s a wonder he’s alive at all.”

Warren pouted at Dale. “I was not.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Dale came up to Warren and put a hand in his face to shove him aside. “That’s the hypothermia talking.”

“Knock it off,” Warren pushed Dale away. “I’m not frozen.”

“Oh, well, then I guess you will need that hot chocolate to heat you up,” Lena said. Warren’s eyes widened so much that they looked like they were trying to pop right out of his head. 

“No, no, I still need hot chocolate,” Warren insisted. He wrapped his arms around himself and shivered in an overly exaggerated way. “I’m so cold.”

Lena and Dale both laughed. “Well, we can’t have that, can we?” Lena said. “Come inside, both of you. There’s hot chocolate in the kitchen.” Warren was already inside before Lena had even finished speaking, leaving Dale alone with Lena, the traitor.

“Come on, you,” Lena put a hand on Dale’s shoulder as she practically dragged him inside. “You eggs have to be cold by now.”

“And I’ll still eat every bite of them,” Dale promised, because he knew that was what she expected from him. Lena didn’t seem that eager to take him on his word, because she walked him into the kitchen and stood right behind him as he sat back down in his chair. Dale knew he wasn’t going to be going anywhere until she was satisfied.

Dale immediately noticed that there was a lack of red-faced little brothers in the kitchen. “Where’s Warren?”

“I’m coming!” Warren shouted. Moments later he ran into the room with his blue plaid blanket over his shoulders. Dale’s red plaid blanket, as well as Scorch, were in his arms. “I thought this would help to warm us up even more.”

“Good thinking.” Dale accepted his blanket. Warren sat on the chair next to Dale and put Scorch on the table between them. Lena almost immediately put two mugs of hot chocolate in front of them, though Dale hadn’t noticed that she had left her spot behind him. She must have gotten their hot chocolate while Dale had been distracted with Warren. She was really tricky like that.

“You do so much around Fablehaven,” Warren commented as he sipped at his hot chocolate, probably burning his tongue off in the process. “I feel so tired, and I’ve only done a little bit of work.”

“You did a lot of work,” Dale assured him. “You just did it in a little bit of time. It’s what I do basically all day, every day.” Stan did the mentally trying, exciting work. Dale was just in charge of keeping things easy for him.

“You do this every day?” Warren looked at his brother in shock and admiration. “How do you do it?”

“It gets easier over time.” Dale said, and it really did. It was only in the past five years that Dale had been working full time around Fablehaven. When he had first started Dale had only worked a few hours at a time, and then a few years later he had moved on to half days. Just before their parents had gone missing Dale had been working for a few hours in the morning, he took a few hours off for lunch, and then worked another two or three hours after that. Dale certainly had more endurance than he used to, but it hadn’t come to him over night.

“I know you’re tired and cold right now, so this probably isn’t what you want to hear.” Dale stirred his hot chocolate and smiled cautiously at his brother. “But if you’re interested, there’s actually a lot of things you can do to help around Fablehaven. You can be my little helper.”

“Wait, really?” Warren smiled excitedly. “You’ll let me help?”

“I would love for you to help.” Dale said. “Maybe not today, because I think you’ve already worked yourself out, but later? Absolutely.” Warren had always been willing to help out around the yard, but they hadn’t done anything formal about it. Warren was still pretty young, Dale was probably a year or two older than him before he had started working with their dad, but that didn't matter. Warren didn’t have to do things the same way that Dale had.

“Awesome,” Warren looked far too pleased with the idea of doing yard work. Sometimes Dale forgot just how much Warren liked to feel useful. Well, that was going to change from this point on. Warren was still just a kid, but he was starting to be really independent. If Warren was going to be doing his own thing now, the least that Dale could do was give him a bit of guidance to what he could do. It may take some time for Dale to get used to the idea that his little brother was more capable than he thought he was, but he would get there...eventually


	10. Chapter 10

Working around Fablehaven was hard, but somehow training Warren to do the same was even more difficult.

"Are we going to see any monsters today?" Warren asked, sounding much too excited at the thought.

Dale heaved a sigh, though thankfully it was disguised as a grunt of effort. He didn't really want to let his brother know that he was annoyed with him, not when Warren was so excited at the thought of helping him. Warren's enthusiasm may be exhausting, but Dale didn't want to discourage him from helping out around the yard, or in the forest.

"You know, just because we aren't in the protection of the yard doesn't mean that we should hope to see monsters," Dale said. "Remember, we're out here for a purpose."

"Yeah, I know," Warren picked up some large rocks and fallen tree branches and gently tossed them off the path that they had been following. It was a tedious task, but Warren didn't seem all that bored by it. "But we might see something, right?"

"Yes, that's definitely a possibility." Dale said. He used his hedge shears to clip back the bushes that had grown too big and had started to creep onto the edges of the path. Warren knelt and took the clipped away bush trimmings as Dale trimmed them. He tossed them back into the forest, just like he'd been doing all morning. Warren didn't even question why they were clearing the path by just tossing everything aside, and he didn't try to make a game out of it by throwing things as far out as he could. Warren just did as he was told. He left the forest alone as best that he could. The path was theirs, but nothing else. They shouldn't mess around with any of the rest of the forest, not if they could help it.

"You remember what you're supposed to do if you see a creature?" Dale asked as he finished trimming back one particularly nasty bush.

"Yeah, 'course I do." Warren rolled his eyes. "I'm supposed to run back to the house as fast as I can, not stopping for anything." Warren hadn't complained against the instruction, but Dale knew that if it really came to that, he wouldn't be nearly as happy to follow through with his promise.

"And if it's a friendly creature." Dale asked.

"To go anyways," Warren said automatically. "Even if you tell me it's safe, because the creature might be malicious and possess you or something."

"You'd better remember that," Dale said. Usually creatures would leave them alone because of the treaty, but he didn't want to take any chances, especially not when his little brother was involved. "You ready to take a lunch break?" Warren hadn't shown any sign or tiring or wanting to take a break, but Dale knew that his brother was just putting on a tough act. Dale was feeling tired and hungry, and he couldn't imagine Warren feeling much different.

Sure enough, Warren straightened in relief. "Yeah, I can eat."

Dale laid down his shears and reached into his bag. He pulled out two sack lunches, one for each of them. Dale gave one of them to Warren, who quickly sat on the dirt path and began to dig into his sandwich. Dale knelt on the ground next to his brother, though he kept a hand next to the gardening shears. It wasn't an ax, but it was sharp, and Dale could do a lot of damage with them if he really had to. He didn't plan to, but he would rather be ready just in case.

The two of them ate their food quickly, Warren because he was really hungry, and Dale because he didn't want to leave them completely vulnerable for too long. Despite the fact that they were eating, they both paused when they heard a rustling in the bushes. Warren and Dale froze. Dale slowly put his sandwich on his bag and grabbed the gardening shears. He gave his brother a warning look as he got to his feet. "Stay put," Dale mouthed.

Warren nodded as he slowly got to his feet as well, though he kept low. Other than that, Warren didn't move. Keeping Warren in his peripheral vision, Dale focused his attention to whatever had rustled the bushes. Dale didn't move towards it, but he was ready to attack or defend the very instant that trouble showed its face.

"Look out!" Dale felt a sense of urgency build up inside of him when he heard Warren's panic filled voice. He turned just in time to see Warren dive to tackle...something. Dale, feeling the utmost concern for his brother, forgot about the sound in the bushes and hurried to get his brother away from whatever he had tackled.

Warren had an extremely firm grip on who had tackled, and Dale wasn't quite able to seperate them, but he was able to get a better look at the legs of his victim. "Hey, hey, hey, Warren, calm down. Let the satyr go."

"Yes, please, listen to the wise Dale," The satyr said, and after he spoke Dale could hear that it was Doren. Warren's strong grip wasn't obstructing his breathing, but making it impossible for him to move. Dale wondered where Warren had learned how to pin down someone bigger than he was. He was quite good at it.

Because Dale didn't have to worry about his brother being hurt by Doren, but the opposite was definitely a possibility, he could focus on pulling Warren's legs and arms out from around Doren. It took some effort, but Dale was eventually able his brother away from the unsuspecting satyr.

"At least you've learned neutralize a threat without doing real damage right off the bat." Dale muttered. He offered out a hand to pull Doren to his feet. Dale then turned back to the bushes. "You can come out now, Newel," Sure enough, the red haired satyr came out from behind the bushes, a barely concealed look of amusement on his face.

"Hey, Dale, you finally going to introduce us to your little brother we keep hearing about?" Newel tried really hard to keep his expressional neutral, but at the end of it he couldn't help but start laughing. Doren glared at his friend.

"Yeah, laugh it up," Doren grumbled. "I'd like to see you get tackled by the little demon."

Dale sighed in irritation. He was not in the mood to be dealing with the satyrs. "What are you two doing here?"

"We could ask you the same thing," Newel said defensively. "We never see you out here, especially not with a mini human behind you." Warren frowned at being referred to as a mini human, but one stern look from Dale made him hold his tongue.

Dale gestured to his gardening shears. "We're just trimming up the path."

"We were stopping for a lunch break when you tried to sneak up on Dale from behind." Warren glared at Dale, who flinched slightly and held his hands up defensively.

"Hey, we didn't mean any harm," Doren said, and Dale knew he was probably right. Satyrs were rarely malicious creatures, especially not these satyrs. "We were just messing around."

"You mean you were just wanting to steal my lunch," Dale crossed his arms and gave the two satyrs an unimpressed look. This wasn't the first time that they had done something like this. Doren and Newel were always eager to get a quick and easy meal. It wasn't because they were starving and desperate, they were just really lazy.

"Are you guys hungry?" Warren's expression softened. He held out his own sandwich. "You can have mine if you really need it."

Doren and Newel shared a sheepish glance. Newell was finally the one to answer him. "Keep your food, we've got our own." Warren didn't say anything, he just shrugged and went back to eating his food. Dale had already finished his sandwich, but he wasn't in the mood for eating the apple or chips, so he tossed them to Newell and Doren to finish up.

The satyrs fought over the bag of chips for a moment, completely ignoring the apple before they decided to split them both evenly between the two of them. Doren and Newel sat down on the ground next to Warren, who excitedly began to chat with them. Dale didn't think it was a good idea for Warren to get too cosy with satyrs, because while they might not be malicious, they were definitely a horrible influence. As far as satyrs went though, Newel and Doren were fairly tame. There wasn't a lot that they could do to influence Warren in the few minutes that they were talking.

While Warren and the satyrs talked, Dale got back to work clearing up the path around them. He felt fairly confident that Warren wasn't in any danger, but he made sure to not take himself out of earshot, just in case.

Dale continued working on his own for about twenty minutes before he made his way back to the others. They had work to do. Dale had to continue on, but he couldn't leave his brother behind. Warren had taken a long enough break.

When Dale went back he found Warren, Newel, and Doren chatting happily with each other like old friends. Dale watched them quietly for a few moments. He hadn't seen Warren relax and chat cheerfully with someone like a friend since the last time that Scott, Carl, and Sophie had visited. They rarely ever left Fablehaven, and even more rarely had visitors. Dale didn't think there had ever been another kid on the preserve, let alone since they'd been there. Dale didn't know how he felt about Warren making friends with creatures around the preserve, not because he was against other species, but because for Warren to be able to be friends with them, he would have to leave the yard to visit them, since they couldn't very well come into the yard themselves.

But it wasn't fair to leave Warren all on his, completely isolated from the rest of the world. Warren deserved to have friends, just like anybody else did, even if those friends were satyrs.

"You ready to get back to work, kiddo?" Dale asked, because he knew that his phrasing would irritate all three of them.

"Aw, come on," Warren whined, though considering the circumstances, and the fact that it was his first complaint of the day, Dale decided to give it a pass. "Can't we stay a little longer?"

"Sorry, 'fraid not," Dale shook his head. "But if you guys want to continue this conversation later, I think that's something we can arrange." Warren looked absolutely ecstatic at the prospect, and was a lot more willing to get to work after that. Doren and Newel weren't quite as enthusiastic as Warren was, but they didn't look miserable at the thought of spending more time with him, so Dale thought it was safe to say that they were interested in seeing again in the future.

Dale hadn't been kidding when he'd offered to figure things out for them. It would be a pain, and Dale would probably be paranoid every second Warren was with the two creatures, but he was willing to give it a try. However, before anything happened, Dale had get a few things straight first.

"Hey, Warren, why don't you go on ahead and start clearing up what I trimmed." Dale suggested. "I want to have a bit of a word with Doren and Newel."

Warren raised and eyebrow at Dale and snickered slightly. "Yeah, sure," Warren got to his feet and brushed off his pants. "I'll see you guys later." Warren grinned at the satyrs before running on ahead. Once Warren was a safe distance away Dale glared coldly at Doren and Newel.

"Alright, here's the deal," Dale grabbed Newel and Doren's horns, pulling on them to send a clear message to the two of them. "Warren deserves normal friendships, so here's what we're gonna do. You guys still looking for a source of batteries for your tv?" Dale had known about their 'secret' tv and desire for batteries for years.

"Wait, you're actually going to give us batteries?" Newel asked in disbelief, which was understandable. Dale had always refused them whenever they'd bothered him about batteries, because he'd never had a reason to humor them before. Now though, he did.

"As long as Warren's hanging out with you guys, I'll get you guys all the batteries you want." Dale offered. Doren and Newel's eyes widened.

"Seriously?" Newel grinned excitedly.

"What's the catch?" Doren asked suspiciously. Of course he had to know that Dale wasn't finished with them. He was still holding them by the horns, afterall.

"The catch is that I'm going to be trusting you two with my little brother," Dale said lowly. He would probably never let Warren be completely alone with them, at least not for a few years, but the point still stood. "If you do anything to betray that trust, if Warren gets even a single scratch while he's in your care, you'll both with that you'd never even laid eyes on him."

"What are you going to do, flay us alive and use our fur to make yourself a new coat?" Newel rolled his eyes. That actually was exactly what Dale intended to do, on top of throwing their remains to the centaurs, but they clearly didn't take this particular threat seriously, so he would have to do say something else that would get their attention.

"No, but I will make it my personal life mission to make sure that neither of you even touches another battery for the rest of your life." Dale would flay them as well, but he knew that this would get under their skin much more than a threat of violence would.

Sure enough Doren and Newel's eyes widened almost comically. They looked disgusted and horrified, like he had just threatened their young or something. "H-hey, there's no need to get crazy," Newel said, his voice wavering. He clearly hadn't taken the flaying threat seriously, but this had clearly shaken him the both of them. Dale may just be a simple groundskeeper, but he wasn't just going to sit around weeding the garden when his brother might need help. He could be an intimidating person when he wanted to be.

"Are we understanding each other?" Dale asked. Newel and Doren quickly nodded their heads, and Dale released them. "Good. Now, me and Warren really have to get back to work. We'll see you two around." Dale smiled and nodded at the two satyrs as though he hadn't been threatening them just seconds before. Dale grabbed his things and ran to catch up with his brother. Who knew what kind of trouble Warren would get himself into if he was left on his own for too long? Dale may be working on taking a step back and giving his brother some independence, but he wasn't going to be taking his eyes away from his brother. He had to watch the kid's back, whether Warren wanted him to or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that Doren and Newel said that their previous battery supplier wasn't employed at Fablehaven anymore, so it can't really be Dale, but we can just pretend that they thought of Warren as their 'supplier', and Dale is just the middle man who actually gave the batteries to them. I really wanted to show Warren befriending Doren and Newel, because the books at least imply that they're friends. It says that Warren gave them their tennis equipment.


	11. Chapter 11

Dale had thought that when Warren had started doing work around Fablehaven, the two of them would be able to see more of each other. The whole reason why Dale hadn't been able to see Warren as much as he would have wanted to was because of how much work he had to do, and because Warren couldn't stray beyond the safety of the yard. Now Warren was independent, strong, and old enough to do some of the physical work around the preserve. At first, Dale had spent so much time with Warren, because somebody had to show him the ropes, and it had been great. But after a year or so Warren knew enough about the basics that he was able to handle the work around the yard, leaving Dale open to do the work on the paths and around the forests.

When Dale had been the only one working, he had only really seen Warren when he was done working for the day, and sometimes during lunch when he was close enough to the house to come in for his break. Dale had thought that when the two of them were working at the same time that at the very least they would be back at home at the same time too, but somehow it wasn't the case. Warren woke up at the same time as Dale now, but then he would immediately head outside and swim a few laps in the pool before having breakfast. By the time Warren was coming back in, Dale was ready to head out for work.

It wasn't just before work that they barely saw each other anymore, but after work as well. Warren wasn't ready for full work days, so he should be the first done, but by the time Dale got back his brother was nowhere to be found. Dale had been concerned and freaked out at first, but Warren always came back about two hours later, looking tired, but unharmed. Lena frequently told him to leave Warren alone, that he was safe. She was completely unconcerned, and her confidence in Warren did a lot to calm Dale down, like it always did.

Dale tried to give Warren space. His little brother wasn't really a kid anymore, he was almost a teenager now, would be in about four months. Whether Dale liked it or not, Warren was growing up, and he deserved a little bit of freedom. Besides, if Lena thought that Warren was okay being out for another few hours, then Dale shouldn't argue with her. He may try to argue with her, but she always won, so he didn't even try anymore.

Dale just wished he knew what his brother was doing. Lena wouldn't let him go out looking for him, she said that Warren deserved to have some privacy. It really irritated Dale that Lena seemed to know exactly what was up with Warren, and she didn't tell him. Why couldn't she just let Dale be involved with Warren's life? If it weren't for the fact that Lena seemed perfectly fine with whatever Warren was doing, Dale would think that he was just putting in another few hours of work, which Lena would never allow. But if Warren wasn't working, just what was he doing?

Dale tried really hard to not worry about what Warren was up to. It shouldn't matter to him what Warren did with his free time, just so long as he wasn't putting himself in danger, which Lena assured him he wasn't. Dale just hoped that Warren would open up to him about what was going on sooner or later...preferably sooner.

A few weeks after Dale noticed this nonsense he came back to the house and noticed that, for once, Warren was home before him. He was sweating and looked frustrated, but at least he was home. In fact, Warren was sitting on the front porch and, based on the way that he stood up anxiously the second he saw Dale, he was probably waiting for him.

"Hey," Dale greeted his brother.

"Hey," Warren ran a hand through his hair, brushing the sweat out of his face. "Can you help me with something?"

"If it means you're finally going to tell me what you've been up to, then yeah, of course," Dale said, though he probably would have agreed anyways. He was always willing to help Warren with anything, especially when his brother was willing to ask for it. "What's up?"

Warren grinned and leaned against the porch's railing. "Just don't freak out, okay?"

"Well, that doesn't inspire a lot of confidence," Dale put his arm around Warren's shoulder. "But I'll tell you what, I'll do my best to not freak out on you."

Warren laughed slightly. "I guess that's good enough," Warren jumped off the porch and made his way towards the barn. Dale wondered what Warren had been up to in the barn. The barn was technically in the yard, which meant that it was free game for Warren to explore around, but it wasn't exactly an ideal play area. Dale was relieved when Warren didn't enter into the barn itself, but went around back of it.

That relief quickly turned to confusion when Dale saw the set-up back there.

"What have you been up to?" Dale asked as he looked around at the wood stumps, straw dummies, and bullseye targets. Dale bent down and picked up a an ax that was leaning against a log. "What are you doing with an ax?"

"I'm being careful with it," Warren said, though his sheepish expression said otherwise. "I just...can you show me how to use it? It's a lot harder to figure out than a sword of a spear."

"A...I'm sorry, what?" Dale fixed his brother with a critical gaze. "What are you doing with a sword or a spear?"

"...practicing," Warren muttered as he dug the toes of his shoes into the dirt. "I want to be okay at as many weapons as I can,"

"But why?" Dale sat on the stump, putting himself closer to Warren's eye level. "You're working around the yard, there's no need for you to be good at weapons."

"Yeah, but I  _want_ to be." Warren said earnestly. "Can you please help me?"

Dale looked around the little training area . This didn't look like something that Warren had set up on his own. He had probably gotten Lena's help with this, and possibly Stan's too. Why did everybody know about this except for him. "How long have you been doing this?"

"Uh, since my last birthday," Warren sat on the ground and continued to dig with his hands at the spot that he had been messing with with his foot. "Lena's gift to me was, uh, some of Patton's old weapons. She thought I might like to have them."

"She did?" Dale tightened his grip on his ax. He loved Lena, really he did, but he really didn't like it when she did this kind of thing. Dale wondered if Lena would be anywhere near as interested in feeding into Warren's desire for adventure if their parents hadn't named him after her deceased husband. And what was Stan thinking, encouraging this? Warren was just a kid, he shouldn't be involved in any of this stuff.

But then again, Warren had never really been a normal kid. It wasn't that Dale wanted Warren involving himself with weapons, but it seemed like he would be 'practicing' with them anyways, and apparently without supervision. Dale wasn't completely happy with it, as he just wanted his brother to be safe. Warren seemed really dedicated to this thing though, so dedicated that he did this training every single day, even after he had been doing work. If Warren was going to be doing this, and Dale's goal was to keep him safe, then he might as well make sure that his brother was doing this right.

"Alright, show me what you can do," Dale handed the axe to Warren. "What's your stance like?"

"Okay, uh," Warren adjusted his grip awkwardly on the ax. His grip looked decent enough, but that wasn't what the biggest concern of Dale's was. He got to his feet and grabbed some wood, which he placed on the chopping block.

"Can you chop this wood in half?" Dale stepped back. Warren sighed and lifted the ax up over his shoulder. Dale immediately saw the problem.

"You're going to hurt yourself," Dale picked up a long stick and wielded it like Warren did the ax. "See, if you have the axe like this then when you swing it you're going to end up pulling a muscle. What you need to do is lift the axe up over your head, like this," Dale demonstrated with his stick, and Warren did the same with the ax.

"Now, be careful to not pull it too far up over your head," Dale said. "You don't want to drop it."

"Okay," Warren nodded. "Do I just swing the ax down?"

"Make sure you keep your legs slightly apart, just in case you miss," Dale said. "We don't want you hitting your leg." Dale didn't consider himself an expert on weapons, far from it, but he had worked his way around an ax enough to know how to handle one Warren knew how familiar he was with this kind of thing, that was why he had asked him for help in the first place.

Warren slowly shifted his legs apart until Dale nodded at him that it was enough. "Okay, and remember when you swing down, don't try to rely fully on brute strength. Get momentum going, and let the weight of the ax do the job for you, alright?"

Warren nodded and swung the ax down into the wood that Dale had set up. It didn't break the wood, at least not completely. Warren put one hand against the wood he was trying to chop and used the other to wiggle the ax back and forth until he had loosened it enough to pull it out. It seemed as though Warren had gotten a decent amount of practice pulling sharp things out of wood. He really was serious about this.

"Does that make things any easier?" Dale asked.

"Lots easier," Warren grinned as he put the wood back into place, lifted the ax, and swung it down to split the wood in half. "How can I hit the wood right in the middle?"

"Well, I never really cared much about perfectly symmetrical pieces," Dale shrugged. "I only ever use the ax for firewood, and when you're burning wood it doesn't really matter how pretty it looks." However, he understood why Warren might want to be a bit more picky. If Warren was wanting to use an ax as a weapon, not just a tool, then he would have to know how to deal damage, not just make it easier to create kindle. "Something that might help though is if you rest your ax right at the spot where you're going to hit." Dale demonstrated with his stick. "So when you lift it back, when you bring it back down again, it might hit the same spot again."

Warren nodded and rested the blade of the ax against the wood. He lifted the ax back, and then slowly lowered it down to the same spot again. Warren wasn't trying to cut into anything, but just remind himself of the strategy. "Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks."

Dale still didn't know how he felt, teaching Warren how to wield a weapon. Sure, he felt better about his brother using an ax when he knew what he was doing, but he was still a little freaked out at the thought of just what Warren might use with this knowledge in the future. Dale didn't like it, but Warren had the blood of an adventurer. He wouldn't be content at Fablehaven forever. Someday, he would leave to go do whatever he did with these weapons. Dale was terrified for when that day would inevitably come, but he tried to push back his fear. Told himself that he should be relieved that at least Warren wouldn't be jumping into this mess of a life completely defenseless. With luck, and obviously a lot of hard work, Warren would be able to defend himself.

"So, uh, you said that an ax wasn't like a sword or a spear," Dale grabbed the ax back from Warren. "Maybe you could show me a thing or two?" Dale didn't really have a lot of interest in learning how to wield a weapon, especially not something like a sword or a spear. He didn't really have any need or desire to be able to hold his own with a weapon, not the way that Warren did. But this was obviously really important to Warren, and Warren was really important to Dale.

"Can we spar with each other?" Warren's eyes practically lit up at the idea. "I haven't actually been able to spar against anybody." Dale smiled slightly. Warren's excitement was contagious.

"I should probably learn the basics first," Dale reminded his brother. "But yeah, we can be sparing partners." He didn't exactly want to learn how to use a sword, but if it helped prepare Warren for when he would be out there actually using these things and fighting for real, then he could put in a little bit of effort.

Besides, if this was what Warren was going to be spending his free time doing, then Dale could do it too. It may take up some of his free time, but Dale didn't really care. If it meant spending some more time with his brother, then it was worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why does America feel the need to be so weird in its language? Midway through writing this chapter I went to look up some stuff to double check how to properly use an axe, only to notice that some places spelled axe without the 'e' at the end, like ax...what even is the point of that? Is the 'e' at the end of the word really hurting anybody? But I wanted to be consistent with the books, so I looked in my Fablehaven book, just to double check how they spell the word, and low and behold they spell it 'ax'...without the 'e' at the end. So, of course, I have to go back through the chapter and take all of the 'e's off the end of ax, all because we Americans just have to be so special about the way we use the English language.


	12. Chapter 12

Dale frowned and tapped his fingers against the steering wheel of the truck. He hated being outside of Fablehaven. As isolated as it felt from the rest of the world, they couldn't do everything on their own. Every two weeks they had to go into town and run some errands. Get some groceries, work materials that they were running low on or needed to replace, and pick up the mail.

Years ago Dale's mom had been more than happy to do the errands. She had married into this life, and was more than comfortable among other people. Dale hadn't taken after her in that sense. He hated leaving Fablehaven, even for something as simple as grocery shopping. Ever since his parents had accepted that stupid mission from the Knights of the Dawn and gone missing and/or died, they'd all had to take over those responsibilities.

Because Dale and Stan always had work to do around Fablehaven, and Lena liked to avoid leaving the preserve unless it was absolutely necessary, Ruth was usually the one to go. Sometimes though Lena insisted that Dale needed to get out of his comfort zone and  _encouraged_ him to go into town, even if just for a little bit. Dale hated it so much. It may not be nearly as hard as working in the yard, but in Dale's opinion it was a lot worse.

On the bright side, at least he was almost done. He just had to pick up some mail and he could go home. Dale sighed and parked the truck in front of the post office. He turned off the ignition more aggressively than he had to and stepped out of the truck. Dale clutched the keys to the truck and P.O. box and entered the building. He ignored everybody that he passed and just headed straight towards their P.O. box. Dale used his keys to open the box and grab the mail. There wasn't a lot in there, as very few people knew about Fablehaven at all, but that just meant that most everything that they received in the mail was pretty important.

Dale understood why they had their mail sent to a P.O. box, but he didn't know if it was the best plan. They couldn't reveal Fablehaven's location to many people, which meant that if they wanted to get mail, it was safest to give them a different address to send things to. The problem with this plan was that they might not receive important mail for up to two weeks later, because it just wasn't feasible for them to pick up the mail every single day. Even if what was sent wasn't time sensitive, they still left letters that talked about magic and creatures. Dale just didn't think it was very smart to keep these things in a public place.

Nothing had gone wrong yet, so maybe it was okay.

As important as these letters probably were, Dale's only interest in them was that they were the last thing that he had to pick up. Letters in hand, Dale closed the P.O. box and made his way back to the truck. Dale got into the truck and tossed the letters onto the passenger seat. Dale was just about to turn the truck on when he got a glimpse of one of the letters. It had an insignia on it that Dale was all too familiar with. It was a letter from the Knights of the Dawn.

Dale knew that they were the good guys, but he couldn't help but feel suspicion and slight anger when he saw that letter. What did they want this time? Were they trying to convince Stan to come out of his retirement? It wouldn't be the first time. Dale scowled and pushed aside all of the other letters so he could get a look at the letter from the Knights of the Dawn. He froze when he saw who the letter was addressed to.

_Warren Patton Burgess._

What could the Knights of the Dawn possibly want with Warren? He was just a child, though Warren would likely kick his butt the next time they sparred if he knew that he still thought of him as a kid. Warren was fifteen now. Dale still saw Warren as his baby brother, and he always would, but he was learning to recognize that Warren wasn't a little kid anymore.

However, that didn't mean that he was an adult either. He certainly wasn't nearly old enough for Dale to feel comfortable with the fact that the Knights of the Dawn knew who Warren was, let alone that they were contacting him.

Without hesitating for a moment Dale picked up the letter and opened it. He knew that this was technically illegal, and he was sure that Warren would be more than happy to tell him about the contents in the letter. But Dale wasn't just about to hand this letter to Warren, not unless he knew just what the Knights of the Dawn wanted with his little brother.

Dale opened the letter with shaky hands and quickly read it over. He tightened his grip on the paper when he read, and then reread what was inside. He didn't want to believe the words, but he wasn't foolish enough to think that he was misunderstanding them. The letter made it perfectly clear that the Knights of the Dawn wanted to recruit Warren.

An 'internship' they called it. The opportunity to train under master fighters, and professional treasure hunters. The very people that Warren looked up to and wanted to be like. Warren hadn't actually said anything about his future goals as an adventurer for nearly ten years, and he certainly hadn't said anything about joining the Knights of the Dawn. Warren pretended to be content to just stay in Fablehaven and dream, but Dale could see how anxious he was getting for something more. Dale understood that, and he had been trying really hard to be okay with it, to trust his brother to keep himself safe out there, but  _this_...this was not okay.

Dale crumpled up the note in his hands and stuffed it in his pockets, fuming. Who did the Knights of the Dawn think they were? Offering to train a boy who just so happened to be the great nephew of the legendary Patton Burgess. They weren't interested in Warren, they were interested in a young Burgess that they could mold into being an ideal little Knight, and Dale wasn't going to stand for it. This was not okay.

Dale was so furious and worried about what could happen to his brother that he only half paid attention to what he was doing as he drove home, which probably wasn't safe, but he couldn't help it. He was desperate to get home. Desperate to see his brother. Desperate to figure out just how the Knights of the Dawn knew that Warren would be interested in what they had to offer.

All too soon Dale was pulling up the driveway and parking the truck near the house. Dale sighed and turned off the ignition. He sat silently for a moment, glaring at the steering wheel. Dale was still for a moment before letting out a shout of fury and slamming his hands on the wheel, causing the horn to blare loudly. Despite the noise, Dale didn't take his hands away, he just left the horn going for nearly thirty seconds.

Dale pushed down at the wheel with all his might before he finally pulled away, only to bring his hands to his hair and pull at it. He curled slightly in on himself and closed his eyes tightly. He couldn't do this. His brother...his  _brother…_

"Dale," He tensed but otherwise didn't move when he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. Lena. "Did something happen?"

"They can't have him," Dale shuddered and tightened his grip at his hair. "They took away your parents, and now they want to...they want…" Dale whimpered and tried to curl even more on himself. Lena gently took Dale's hands and brought them away from his face. She pulled Dale's hands and guided him to turn his legs so he was sitting sideways in his seat, facing out the door of the truck, which Lena had opened.

"Who wants Warren?" Lena asked quietly. She sounded concerned, but Dale didn't know if she was worried about him, or about Warren.

Dale grimaced and reached into his pocket again, pulling out the letter, which he handed to Lena. She uncrumpled it and began to read it. She didn't read the whole thing, she didn't have to. It was very clear what was being said in the first couple of paragraphs.

"The Knights of the Dawn are offering to train your brother," Lena commented. She lowered the note and looked at Dale. "You know they're not bad people. They really are trying to do good in the world."

"I know," Dale groaned in frustration. He hated the Knights of the Dawn, but it would be petty and stupid of him to let his own personal feelings influence his judgement. The Knights were trying to keep the world, and the magical preserves, safe, nothing else. "But they shouldn't need Warren."

Lena smiled and rubbed her thumbs over Dale's hands. "They're not out to hurt you, Dale, or Warren. They just want to help him get stronger and become all he was meant to be."

"How are they supposed to help him when they don't  _know_ him at all?" Dale growled. "They just want to  _use_ him,"

"Yes, in a few years they'll probably try to convince him to join the Knights," Lena admitted. She ran a gentle hand through his hair. Dale sighed and leaned into her touch. His mother used to stroke his hair when he was sick or particularly distressed. Lena had done it occasionally too, but it had been a few years. It made him feel like a little kid again, but in the good kind of way. The way that made him feel like he was being taken care of.

"They wouldn't force anybody to join them though," Lena said. She pulled Dale close and held him tightly. "But Dale, you can't force him to not join them either. Ultimately, it's going to be Warren's decision."

"And he's going to choose them," Dale's shoulder's fell. He knew his brother. Warren may not have shown any interest in joining the Knights of the Dawn, but he was eager to follow in their great-uncle's footsteps and be an adventurer. Warren was so persistent in practicing his weapon use, because he was trying to prepare himself for future circumstances that he just might stumble upon.

There were so many reasons why Warren would probably accept the Knights of the Dawn's offer. They said they would train him, and Warren was always looking for a way to learn a new skill. He would get to be around people who had seen many preserves and creatures that they'd never even heard of before, and Warren loved to hear about other places.

And, worst of all, in a few years they would give him the chance to do some good in the world and experience new things for himself. There was no way that Warren was going to let an opportunity like this pass him by.

"I'm not ready for this," Dale muttered and shook his head. He felt his eyes grow wet with tears, and he couldn't bring himself to care. "I'm not ready to let him go." Just thinking about his brother taking the Knights of the Dawn up on their offer made him sick to his stomach, and he felt like he was going to be sick when he thought about Warren actually joining them in just a few short years.

"Letting him go?" Lena pulled back and looked at Dale in confusion. "It's not as though he would be leaving forever. His training would just be for a few weeks at a time, and then he'll be back. The same would be true if he was a true Knight." Dale knew this, but it still felt like if he let Warren leave then would have to say goodbye to him forever.

And if he didn't say goodbye to Warren, then at the very least he would have to say goodbye to the part of himself that still hoped that Warren would stay at Fablehaven forever and be happy here. If Warren left, Dale knew that he would quickly see just how much he was missing, and he wouldn't want to let any of it go. Warren would come back to Fablehaven to visit, of course. He wouldn't just forget about them. But Dale could tell even know that Fablehaven just wouldn't be his home anymore, it would become just another place.

Dale didn't want his home to just be a place where Warren chose to squat while he eagerly looked for a new adventure.

Dale stared numbly at the ground, looking for reassurance that he knew weren't there. "...Were you ever afraid that Patton would want to go on more adventures and just leave you?"

Lena hummed quietly. "Sometimes," She admitted. "He accomplished so much before we'd even met. He loved to talk about his adventures, and I loved to listen to him. He always had a spark of light in his eyes when he talked about all he'd seen." Lena laughed slightly. "I've been seeing that same spark reflected in Warren's eyes more and more lately."

Dale shifted uncomfortably. He knew that Lena saw a lot of similarities between her deceased husband and Warren, he just didn't like it when she brought it up. Dale didn't have anything against Patton, he actually admired the man who had done so much for their world, but he didn't want Warren to be given any ideas. Patton may have lived a long and happy life, but that didn't mean that the same would be true for Warren if he chose to follow in his footsteps.

"What did you do about it?" Dale asked. He wanted to know how he could make these paranoid feelings go away. "How do I stop holding him back?"

"Now, you stop it right there, Dale Burgess," Lena said sharply. Dale lifted his head and was shocked at how stern her gaze was. "You are  _not_ holding your brother back, do you understand me?" Dale nodded quickly and Lena's gaze softened. "Caring about someone doesn't make you a burden."

"But I don't want him to leave," Dale said. "I know this is a great opportunity for him, and I still don't want him to go. How is that  _not_ me holding him back?"

"It just makes you human and a little selfish," Lena said, as though it was a good thing to be selfish. "There's nothing wrong with wanting something. The important thing, and the hardest thing, is that you let Warren make this decision on his own. If he chooses to leave, it's not because you chased him away, and if he stays it's not because you're forcing him too. He'll choose what he wants the most." Lena's tone implied that she was speaking from existence. Dale thought that she probably worried about Patton leaving a little more often than just 'sometimes'.

"But you have a choice to make too, Dale," Lena said, looking Dale straight in the eyes. She returned Warren's letter back to him. Dale frowned and looked at the letter. He still hated it, and he still didn't want his little brother to leave, but Lena was right, he  _did_ have a choice to make.

The choice to keep things the way they were, or to back off and let Warren make his own decisions,.

It really  _was_ a hard choice to make, even when he knew which option would be best..

Dale sighed and carefully folded the letter. He got to his feet and looked towards the barn. It wasn't too late in the afternoon, but by this time of day Warren was usually done with his work and was training.

"I'll go take this to Warren," Dale said. Lena smiled and gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"You're doing a good thing," Lena said, sounding proud.

"I still feel lousy about it," Dale said, but he knew he would feel lousy if he just kept this whole thing a secret from Warren and pretended that he had never gotten a letter from the Knights of the Dawn.

Lena was right, this was Warren's life, and he had a right to have a say in where it went from here. Dale would still prefer for his brother to stay home, but if Warren was going to leave, he just hoped that no harm came to him, because if it did he didn't know if he would be able to make this same decision to let Warren make these choices for himself.

Dale just wanted Warren to be safe, but he wanted him to be happy too. Sometimes people couldn't be both safe and happy with their lives. Dale hoped that Warren was someone that could, because he deserved both, and Dale was going to do everything that he could to make sure that Warren got everything that he deserved, and more.

It was what big brothers were for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this chapter wasn't repetitive or had too many mistakes towards the end. I'm really tired and practically falling asleep right now, but I really wanted to finish this chapter, since I was almost done with it.
> 
> As a side note, I don't actually know if Patton continued going on adventures after he married Lena, or if she went on any adventures with him. Patton is kinda talked about all over the place in the books, and while it says he did a lot, I can't remember whether Lena was ever with him during these adventures, or if he did them all before he met her, or if he just left her at the preserve as he went on adventures. I just don't know. I could believe any of them to be the case.


	13. Chapter 13

Dale grimaced and pulled his blanket closer around him.  He felt absolutely exhausted, like he’d only been asleep for maybe three hours.  Too long to be a refreshing nap, but not nearly long enough to be a full night’s sleep.  He would normally just roll over and go back to sleep, except that someone was shaking his shoulder slightly, preventing him from dozing off again.

 

“Dale, I need you to wake up for me,”  Lena said quietly. He groaned and rolled over to look up at Lena, who was already in her nightwear.  

 

“Wh-what’s going on?”  Dale yawned. He lifted himself onto his elbows and looked at Lena.  “What’s wrong?”

 

“Nothing’s wrong,”  Lena assured him. She finally stepped back, but only so she could turn on the lights.  Dale groaned and pulled his blanket up over his eyes. “I would just like for you to do me a favor,”

 

Dale blinked and slowly pulled the blanket away to allow his eyes to adjust to the sudden light.  “What kind of favor?”

 

“I want you to go to the airport and pick up Warren,”  Lena said, and Dale suddenly found himself feeling wide awake.

 

“Warren?”  Dale questioned quietly in disbelief.  “I thought he was going to be gone for another two weeks.”  That was the whole deal. Warren would go to be trained by the Knights of the Dawn for three weeks, he would come home for a month, and then leave for another three weeks.  It had only been a single week. “Is he hurt? Is he okay?”

 

“Warren’s just fine,”  Lena said quickly. “He’s just coming home a little earlier than planned.”  Dale didn’t think it was that simple. If Warren was just ready to come home a little early, if there was no urgency to it, then Dale didn’t see why they wouldn’t have arranged for him to take a flight that arrived during the day rather than in the middle of the night.  This felt like a spur of the moment thing.

 

Dale was sure that the Knights would have told Lena if Warren was hurt, and she certainly would have told him if something horrible had happened.  But just because Warren was physically fine didn’t mean that he was actually okay.  

 

“Yeah, I can go,”  Dale shrugged off his covers and swung his legs off his bed.  He was always willing to do a favor for Lena, but he was mostly doing this for Warren.  He had to see for himself that his little brother was safe.

 

Lena gave him a small smile of appreciation.  “I’ll make sure there’s some fresh lemon bread for you two when you get home.”  Dale opened his mouth to remind her that Warren didn’t like lemon bread when she gave him a knowing look.  “And yes, I’ll make some brownies too.”

 

Dale frowned.  The last time she had made both lemon bread and brownies for breakfast had been the day that Dale had turned eighteen.  It was their ultimate comfort food, and Lena always seemed to be able to tell when they needed it most. The fact that she was making this for them told Dale that despite what Lena said, she really was worried about this.

 

“Yeah, alright,”  Dale stretched. Lena nodded and left the room.  Dale sighed and got up to get dressed. He also began to look around for anything he might need.  Dale knew that he was just going for a quick drive to the airport to pick up his little brother. He was leaving the preserve.  There really wasn’t all that much danger that they had to be worried about, at least not of the magical kind. Dale doubted that he would need all that much, but he still grabbed his gun, just in case.

 

He didn’t have any plans on using it, but it was always better to be safe than sorry.  He would have to hide the gun though, so Dale grabbed his blanket as an afterthought. He could use it to cover the gun in the backseat, and if Warren was tired when he picked it up, he might appreciate something a little more comfortable to nap against.

 

Although, if he was going to be bringing some things for Warren to sleep against during the drive home, he might as well do this right.  Dale shoved his feet into his shoes and left the room, immediately making his way upstairs to the attic. He knew that Warren would feel much more comfortable with his own blanket, as well as an old friend.

 

Without thinking twice about it, Dale grabbed Warren’s plaid blanket, as well as Scorch.  When Warren had left he had insisted that he didn’t need to take such personal things with him, that he would be fine without them.  If Warren still didn’t want them, then he didn’t have to use them, but Dale was going to make sure that Warren was at least given the chance if he wanted it.

 

Dale went downstairs, passing the kitchen as he went.  It was strange to see Lena up and about so late at night, but what was life without unusual events every once and awhile?  Dale gave Lena a small wave as he passed by. He then went to the front door, grabbing the truck keys on the way out.

 

Dale tossed his things in the back of the truck and got in himself.  Dale began the long drive into town, and then continued on through the next few towns.  The airport was more than an hour’s drive away, in a larger city. Dale usually hated being around town, and the last time he had been in a large city had been when Warren had been born.  It was the middle of the night though, so there likely wouldn’t be that many people around.

 

Besides, Dale was too busy worrying about what could be going on with Warren to really get upset about the possibility of being near so many people.

 

Dale thought quietly to himself as he drove.  After what felt both like an eternity, and just a couple of minutes, Dale was pulling the truck into the ‘picking up/dropping off’ area of the airport.  There were a couple of people coming and going, as well as a handful of cars waiting around. The crowd was small enough that Dale didn’t have to search for too long to find his brother.  Warren was standing a ways off from everyone else, his backpack clutched tightly to his chest.

 

Dale pulled up next to his brother and rolled down the passenger side window.  “Need a lift?”

 

Warren didn’t answer him.  He didn’t even meet his eyes.  Warren just opened the door to the truck and climbed in.  Warren drew his legs close to his chest, still hugging his backpack.  Dale watched his brother for a second before he leaned back and grabbed Scorch and Warren’s blanket.

 

“Here,”  Dale grabbed Warren’s bag from him and replaced it with the plush dragon.  Warren clung tightly to Scorch and Dale tossed his bag in the back before beginning the long drive home.  Dale didn’t say anything at first. If Warren was ready to talk, he would talk.

 

They drove in silence for nearly fifteen minutes, and Dale was beginning to feel uneasy with how quiet his brother was.  Dale knew that typically it was best to give Warren space until he was ready to open up, but it didn’t seem like that was going to happen any time soon.  Dale had a choice to make. He could either give Warren some space and time, or he could push Warren to open up now.

 

Dale sighed and tapped his fingers against the steering wheel.  “Do you want to talk about what happened?”

 

“No,”  Warren said coldly.  “I just want to go home,”

 

Dale briefly glanced over towards his brother, who seemed to be trying to make himself as small as he could.  “I thought you were looking forward to learning from the Knights?”

 

Warren was quiet for a moment, and Dale thought that he wasn’t going to answer when he finally spoke up.  “...I don’t think I’m ready for this.”

 

Dale looked back towards the road.  “You mean ready to be a Knight?” Out of the corner of his eye he saw Warren shrug.  That was as close to an answer as Dale was going to be getting at that moment. “You know you don’t have to be ready right now, right?  That’s why you’re doing this whole training thing.”

 

“I-I know,”  Warren said quietly.  “I just don’t think I should do it anymore.”

 

“W-wait, are you kidding me?”  Dale spared his brother a glance.  “Warren, you’ve been teaching yourself how to use swords, and spears, and axes, and I don’t even know what else for your entire life.  These people can teach you so much. I thought this was what you wanted?” Dale felt a little strange to be encouraging Warren to continue doing this when he had been so against the idea in the first place.

 

Dale still didn’t exactly want Warren to leave and join the Knights of the Dawn so soon.  But it felt wrong to let Warren give up on something he had been so excited about. Warren had probably had a really tough week, which made sense, because he’d never really spent all that much time away from home, and all of a sudden he was being thrown into this new situation.  It would take time for anyone to adjust.

 

“It was, I mean, it  _ is, _ I just...I don’t think I’m any good at it.”  Warren said quickly. Dale looked at his brother like he was crazy.  This really didn’t sound like him. Dale very reluctantly turned his attention back to the road.  Maybe he should have waited to have this conversation until after they’d gotten home. It was too late to go back now though.

 

Dale took a deep breath and tightened his grip on the steering wheel.  Had Lena known that they would be talking about this? “Why don’t you think you’re good at it?  You’re the most determined kid I know. You’ve taught yourself how to hold your own in a fight.”

 

“But they’re so much better than me,”  Warren turned and pouted at Dale, who couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

 

“They’re  _ teaching  _ you, of course they’re gonna have more experience than you.”  Dale reminded his brother. Warren just shook his head.

 

“Not the experts, I mean the other kids,”  Warren buried his face in Scorch’s ratty old wings.  “They were all being trained too, but they already knew so much.  You should have seen it.” Warren laughed shakily, and Dale couldn’t tell if Warren was more impressed by the other kids, or jealous of them.  Maybe a mixture of both. “One of them could shoot a bow and arrow perfectly while he was blindfolded. There was this girl who seemed to know  _ everything  _ about magical creatures, and she’s even been collecting some of her own.  They were all just...so  _ great.” _

 

“You’re great too,”  Dale insisted, and he wasn’t just trying to cheer his brother up either, he really meant it.

 

“I’m  _ decent,”   _ Warren clarified.  “Lots of people said so.  They...they said they were impressed by my range in weapons.”

 

“Yeah, so?”  Dall didn’t understand why Warren said it like it was a bad thing.

 

Warren huffed, like he didn’t understand why Dale didn’t get it.  “So I’m good at a lot of things, but I’m not great at anything.Vanessa said that I was a Jack of all traits, but master of none.”

 

Dale scowled.  He didn’t know who this ‘Vanessa’ was, but if she’d been the one to put it into Warren’s head that he was inferior in some way, Dale didn’t think he liked her very much.  “Again, I don’t see what the problem is.”

 

Warren turned and glared at Dale.  “You don’t get it. All the other Knights, they all specialize in  _ something. _   They’re  _ masters. _   Magical objects, magical creatures, hand-to-hand combat, everybody is really good at one thing.  I don’t  _ have  _ a one thing.  I’m just average.”

 

“Alright, that’s enough of that,”  Dale growled slightly. He pulled over to the side of the road and turned the car off.  Dale turned to glare at Warren, who was looking at him with wide eyes. “Look, I don’t  _ care  _ how great these other people are, stop comparing yourself to them.  You’re not  _ them, _ you’re  _ you. _   You’re not average, you’re...you’re well-rounded.”

 

“The Knights aren’t supposed to be well-rounded though,”  Warren said. “They have obvious strengths, and clear weaknesses.  That’s how they decide who gets sent on which missions.”

 

None of this was making sense to Dale.  “There’s no way that’s the case for everybody.  I mean, our parents-”

 

“-Were treasure hunters,”  Warren said easily, making Dale freeze.  Warren must have seen the terrified look of confusion in Dales eyes, and he explained a little more.  “The Knights told me.”

 

The knights.  Dale was really starting to hate these guys.  It was their fault that their parents had disappeared in the first place, and yet they thought they had any right to tell Warren about their parents?  They didn’t know Warren, they didn’t know their parents, they didn’t deserve to say a darn thing about it.

 

“...Fine,”  Dale relented.  “What about Patton Burgess?”

 

This finally seemed to catch Warren’s attention.  “What about him?”  

 

“You’ve heard even more stories about that guy than I have,”  Dale said. “Patton was a Knight, so tell me, what was his ‘specialty’.  What was he the master of?”

 

Warren was quiet for a moment.  He was clearly trying to figure out just what he could say to that, but they both knew there was nothing.  “He...he was an adventurer?”  

 

“But that’s not a single skill,”  Dale said. “It’s a combination of a lot of different things.  Patton wasn’t the ‘master’ of anything, and that’s  _ exactly  _ what made him so great.  It may take a lot of dedication and hard work to master a skill, and that’s commendable, but it’s just as admirable to be able to be so diverse the way that Patton was...the way that  _ you  _ are.” 

 

Dale reached a hand on Warren’s shoulder.  He was just glad that his little brother didn’t pull away, like he would have done if he was too anxious and far gone in his own mind.  It at least seemed like Warren was more open to actually listening to what Dale had to say. “Look, if you’re not ready to be gone for so long, that’s okay.  We can change up the schedule of this whole arrangement. One week gone, three weeks home, something like that. But I don’t think you should give up after just one go.”

 

Warren furrowed his brow.  “Wait a second, you  _ want  _ me to keep doing this?”  Dale didn’t blame Warren for being confused.  Just a few months ago he had been so furiously against Warren having any association with the Knights of the Dawn.  He still didn’t like the thought of it, but in this short amount of time Dale had come to terms with some things.

 

“What I want is for you to do what makes you happy,”  Dale said. “And hanging around Fablehaven, doing your own thing, that’s definitely not working for you.  If becoming a Knight is what you want, then...then I want you to learn how to do it right. And I definitely don’t want you to go around thinking that you’re not good enough to do what you want.”

 

“So...you think I should give this another try?”  Warren sounded cautious, though also a little hopeful.  Despite what he’d said, Warren didn’t want to stop. He just didn’t want to fail.

 

“How about we wait until you’ve done this for six months before making a decision?”  Dale suggested. He thought it sounded fair. It was long enough for Warren to adjust to all of these changes and give this whole thing a proper trial run, but short enough a time that he would still be able to back out of it if he decided that this really wasn’t for him.

 

“Yeah, okay,”  Warren said with a small smile.  He uncurled his legs and loosened his grip on Scorch.  Dale took this as a good sign.

 

“Good,”  Dale let go of his brother’s shoulder and turned the car back on again.  “Now let’s get home. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to have a midnight snack before getting some more sleep.”

 

Warren muttered contently.  “Lena making something for us?”

 

“Lemon bread for me and brownies for you,”  Dale said, and for the first time that night Warren gave him a genuine smile.  It would be a sad day indeed when Warren couldn’t be comforted or bribed by brownies.

 

“Sounds like a plan to me,”  Warren yawned and leaned against the window to rest for a bit.  Dale got that Warren was tired, but so was he, and they still had an hour long drive in front of them. 

 

Besides, it had been a week since they’d seen each other.  Dale had waited long enough to have a nice talk with his brother, one not about Warren’s insecurities.  

 

“So, what did you learn while you were gone?”  Dale gave his brother a small smirk. “Anything cool?”  

 

Warren opened his eyes and grinned, a gleam of excitement in his eyes.  “Oh, Dale, it was  _ amazing. _   You wouldn’t believe the stuff that’s out there.”  Warren needed no more prompting. He began to eagerly go over what seemed to be every detail of what had happened that week, and Dale happily listened to every word of it.


	14. Chapter 14

Dale almost always woke up early, definitely before the sun had risen.  However, 4:30 in the morning was incredibly early, even for him. Usually when Dale woke up this early, he just rolled over and slept for another hour or so.  However, it was Sunday, which was his half day. Dale normally slept so he wouldn’t get tired later in the day when he should be working, but he would be back at the house in the afternoon, so he could nap if he really needed to.  It was early, but Dale didn’t feel tired, so he decided that he might as well begin early.

 

Dale headed downstairs, and was confused to find that the living room light was on.  These past few years, Dale was often the first one to wake up. Sometimes Lena beat him to the punch, but those days were rare.  Dale leaned his head into the living room and did a bit of a double-take when he saw his little brother sitting on the couch, fast asleep.

 

Dale frowned.  Warren had never been fond of going to bed early, but ever since he had turned eighteen and actually became a Knight of the Dawn, things had been getting out of hand.  Because Dale went to sleep early, he had no idea at what time Warren usually went to sleep. He knew it had to be fairly late, because while Warren used to at least be awake before Dale left the house to work, he was always still asleep when Dale left.

 

Dale knew that there was nothing wrong with waking up later than 6:00 in the morning, especially since Warren wasn’t really doing actual work around Fablehaven, since he now worked for the Knights and his time at Fablehaven was just his time-off between assignments.  But there was staying up later, and there was losing all track of time that you fell asleep on the couch while the lights were still on.

 

Dale wouldn’t be so concerned if Warren hadn’t been acting so strange lately.  Dale tried really hard to not just blame the Knights of the Dawn, but Warren hadn’t gotten like this until after he had come back from his first mission.  Dale still thought that Warren’s first mission had gone horribly, that he had been traumatized and was just having a hard time sleeping because of nightmares or something like that.  Lena insisted that nothing of the sort had happened, but Dale still had his suspicions.

 

Then again, Warren had only been home from his first assignment for about two weeks, and he was already itching to be back out there, which Dale wasn’t very happy about.  If something really bad had happened, Dale was pretty sure that Warren would be at least a little more reluctant to put himself into danger again.

 

Even if Warren hadn’t gone through anything absolutely terrible, Dale knew that there had to be a reason why his brother was acting off.  He had left Warren alone up to now (for the most part), but seeing him fall asleep on the couch just felt like one moment too far. Dale meant to have a word with his brother.

 

“Warren,”  Dale shook his brother’s shoulders.  It took a few moments for Warren to wake up, and a little longer for him to be completely aware.

 

“H-hey, Dale,”  Warren yawned as he sat up, wincing when he stretched his stiff muscles.  He really hadn’t slept in a good position.

 

“What are you doing down here?”  Dale asked. “Did you forget that you have a bed?”  It wasn’t that ridiculous of a thought. Warren had only recently turned eighteen, and for part of that time he hadn’t even been in Fablehaven.  So Warren wasn’t really used to not sleeping in the attic, and Dale knew that he had taken some time to adjust to sleeping in a room that he wasn’t used to.

 

“No, I just lost track of time,”  Warren grimaced and fell back on the bed again.  He looked absolutely exhausted.

 

“What time did you go to sleep?”  Dale asked.

 

“I don’t know,”  Warren shrugged. “Around three-ish?  Maybe four?”

 

Dale’s eyes widened.  That meant that Warren had only been asleep for maybe an hour.  No wonder he was so tired. “What were you up so late for?”

 

“I like being up late,”  Warren buried his head in the couch cushions.  “Everyone else is asleep.”

 

Dale thought he understood.  He’d started waking up early because his work made it necessary, but he had really come to appreciate being up in the early hours, when the rest of the world was quiet and asleep.  Even when those were the hours where he was hardest at work, he felt the most at peace. It felt great. So he understood the appeal, but he felt like Warren had just stayed up way too late.

 

“Do you really need that much alone time?”  Dale asked. With how late Warren had stayed up, he had gotten five to six hours all to himself.  That was plenty of time.

 

Warren groaned and lifted his arm vaguely at Dale, almost like he had wanted to hit his arm, but was too tired to put any real effort into it.  “It’s not just about the alone time, it’s...there are always just  _ so many people _ around.”

 

“Oh,”  Dale nodded.  Now he understood it.  “You’re in one of your ‘I don’t want to be around people right now’ moods?”

 

“I don’t know,”  Warren muttered, sounding frustrated with himself.  “It just feels so crowded, and I can’t really escape to the treehouse or attic anymore.”

 

“You can go to your room,”  Dale suggested halfheartedly.  Before he had even finished suggesting it Warren was shaking his head.

 

“It’s not the same,”  Warren said. “It doesn’t feel like my personal space.  It’s just a room that I happen to be sleeping in.”

 

Dale understood how Warren was feeling, because he had seen his brother go through similar moods.  However, Dale could only relate to it so much. He couldn’t truly empathize with how Warren was feeling, he could only imagine what was going through his head.  He knew that he wanted to help him feel better, but he didn’t entirely understand how. Dale knew all too well that he couldn’t just force Warren to feel comfortable.  It just didn’t work like that.

 

Dale knew that there had to be a better way for Warren to find some personal space without staying up in the late hours of the night.  He couldn’t try to think of that right now though. Dale did have work to do this morning, and he really couldn’t expect anything from Warren right now except that he gets some sleep.

 

“We’ll talk about this some more later,”  Dale said. “I was going to get started on my work early.  Why don’t you go to my room and get some more sleep?”

 

Warren gave him a strange look.  “You know I have my own room,”

 

“Yeah, but I also know that you don’t feel completely at home in your room,”  Dale said. “You’ve always felt comfortable in my room though,” It had been a long time since Warren had actually slept on Dale’s bed, not since they had both slept in the attic, but Dale didn’t think that anything had changed in that time.  

 

Warren yawned again.  He didn’t look completely convinced, but he also seemed to be too tired to argue.  “Yeah, okay.” Warren pushed himself off the couch and staggered to his feet. He looked unsteady, but Dale knew that his brother would get to his room just fine.

 

Dale sighed and ran a hand through his hair.  It was too early to worry about his brother like this.  It was just so hard sometimes. Dale had always hated that there wasn’t an awful lot he could do to make Warren feel better, besides just waiting for things to pass.  It just didn’t seem right that Warren didn’t feel completely comfortable in his own home. Nobody should have to feel that way.

 

Dale shook his head and tried to shake Warren out of his thoughts.  If he was working in or around the yard then he’d be able to afford to let his thoughts stray a little bit, but he was working in the forest today.  Fablehaven was too dangerous to not give his work around the preserve 100% of his attention. His concerns about his brother had to wait until later.

 

Dale worked on clearing his mind as he got to work making breakfast for himself.  That was one of the most important rules to working on Fablehaven. You couldn’t work until you ate some decent food.  Lena took care of most of their meals, but that didn’t mean that Dale was completely helpless in the kitchen. He couldn’t make a lot, but he was pretty good at making scrambled eggs.  He’d even experimented with making scrambled eggs enough to know how he liked them best, made with onions and ketchup on top.

 

Dal finished his breakfast relatively quickly, and immediately after headed out to work.  Most of the work that Dale did around Fablehaven needed some yard tools of some kind. Dale kept most of his tools in the barn, because most of his work was at least near the yard.  Today though, he was going deeper into the forest, and he didn’t even know for sure what exactly he might need. It would be annoying enough to drag any tool he might potentially need all the way out to the forest, but it would be a real pain if he forgot something and had to go back for it.  That would just waste time. Fortunately, they’d thought ahead for this exact kind of situation.

 

Dale headed street into the forest, being careful to stay safe on the path.  There were a lot of dangers around Fablehaven, but especially when one was by themselves while it was still dark out.  Dal walked for about fifteen minutes before he saw his first destination. It was a large wooden shack that Patton Burgess had built.  It was where they kept some tools, and many of their weapons. This way, if they needed something while working in the woods, they wouldn’t have to go all the way back to the house to get what they needed.

 

Of course, it would be very foolish to leave weapons out in the open with all of the violent creatures that called Fablehaven home.  It would be way too easy for a creature to start a war with a weapon that was just left around. However, Patton had been smart enough to think of this.  When he’d built the shack, he had put the same magical wards around it that were around the main house and yard. The tools in the shack were completely safe.  

 

It was so safe, in fact, that Dale remembered one time his father had told him about how he had gotten injured while working in the woods, and it was so bad that he knew he wouldn’t be able to make it home before dark.  Instead of trying to struggle home at night, Dale’s dad had hid away in the shack. The shack had been secure enough that Dale’s dad had been able to safely spend the night to rest, use a first aid-kit to take care of his injury, and wait things out until morning.  Dale had always been impressed by this story. After all, it was one thing for weapons and tools to be safe, and another thing entirely for a person to be able to be safe there overnight without having to worry about being attacked.

 

Wait a minute...there was a thought.  Dale looked around the shack as he grabbed some tools, critically eyeing the walls and corners of the shack.  He knew that the shack was actually rather large, but he tried to imagine how it would look without as many tools, and with some furniture instead.  This might just work.

 

Dale smiled to himself as he headed out again.  He had an idea of what to do about Warren’s little problem.  There was no guarantee that it would work, but any idea was better than no idea.  And now that he had a potential solution in mind, he really could focus on his work.  He could come back to this later, preferably with Warren. After all, this was  _ for  _ Warren.  It only made sense that he should have a say.

 

Dale left the shack and set out to do the work that he’d been given.  He didn’t really understand why they needed a trench, but it wasn’t his job to know why.  That was  _ Stan’s  _ job, and Dale didn’t envy him for it.  Stan’s job was to make sure that everything ran smoothly at Fablehaven.  Dale’s job was just to make Stan’s job as easy as possible, which meant doing what he said, including digging a trench.

 

It wasn’t hard work, but it  _ was  _ tiring.  Especially when he could only half focus on the digging itself, as the rest of his concentration had to be on his surroundings, just incase something dangerous came too close.  By the time lunch time came Dale was sore and more than ready for a nap. And he was still nowhere near finished with the trench. He had gotten all of the hardest work done, breaking the ground and at least beginning all of the digging where the trench would be.  He would have to come back to it tomorrow to dig it deeper all around, but Dale still felt good about what he had accomplished. And he was too excited to get home to regret not getting more done.

 

Dale hurried back to the shack.  He quickly put the tools he used where they belonged.  Dale looked around one more time before he turned and made his way back to the main house.  Despite how tired he was, he ran all the way back. He couldn’t wait to talk his idea through with Warren.

 

As Dale approached the yard he saw Lena working in the garden.  Usually when Dale came back from working on Sundays, Lena was working on lunch.  He was either way later than he usually was, or way earlier. Lena’s surprised expression when she saw him told Dale which was the case.

 

“You’re back early,”  Lena stood up and brushed the dirt off of her clothes.  “Did something happen?”

 

“No,”  Dale answered, still making his way towards the house, though he did slow down a bit to talk to her. “I just started earlier than usual today,”

 

“That can’t be all,”  Lena gave him a knowing look.  “You’ve never let something like that stop you before,”

 

“Yeah, well, there’s something that I needed to talk to Warren about,”  Dale said, though now that he thought about it, this wasn’t just a change that could potentially affect Warren.  Dale finally stopped to properly talk to Lena. “Actually, you know that old tool shack in the woods?” Lena nodded, and Dale continued.  “Do you think we can find somewhere else to keep those things? Repurpose the shed, somehow?”

 

Lena’s look became slightly cautious, though she didn’t immediately shut him down.  “What did you have in mind?”

 

Dale leaned against the door.  “Something like a cabin. Somewhere where someone can actually live,”

 

Lena gave Dale a small smile.  “And I’m guessing you already have someone in mind?  Maybe someone who feels a little confined in this house?”

 

Dale should have known that Lena would recognize how antsy Warren was to be around people all the time.  It was probably why she hadn’t said a word to Warren about how late he had been going to sleep and waking up.

 

“Yeah, it’s for Warren,”  Dale said. “You think it would work?”

 

“It’s definitely worth a try.”  Lena said. “Why don’t you go wake up your brother and see what he thinks about it?”

 

Dale frowned slightly.  “He’s still asleep?” Dale knew how late Warren had stayed up, so even though it was lunchtime Warren hadn’t exactly slept for longer than was necessary.  Seven to nine hours wasn’t just normal, it was healthy. It was just really strange for Dale to think of sleeping until noon when he was done doing his day’s work by that time.

 

Lena laughed and shook her head.  She was almost as much of a morning person as Dale was.  She had to understand his confusion. “Go get him. I’ll get started on some lunch.”

 

“Yeah, alright,”  Dale opened the door and went inside.  He automatically made his way to the stairs that would lead to the attic, and was halfway up before he remembered that Warren didn’t sleep up there anymore.  Warren definitely wasn’t the only one who was having a hard time thinking of ‘his’ room as his. Dale’s little lapse in memory reminded him that Warren wasn’t even in his own room, he was in Dale’s.

 

He went into his room and was slightly confused to find that the curtains weren’t even drawn closed.  The sun was shining brightly into the room, and yet Warren was still sleeping soundly. Dale was slightly jealous.  He had never been able to sleep in anything less than pitch blackness, and yet here was Warren, able to sleep in a brightly lit room.

 

Dale nudged Warren’s shoulders, just like he had that morning.  Unlike earlier though, Warren woke up almost immediately. “H-hey,”  Warren said, looking much better than he had this morning. “It lunchtime yet?”  Warren knew perfectly well what time Dale should be home by every day. 

 

“Almost,”  Dale said. “I think I’ve thought of a solution for your little ‘unicorn’ issue.”

 

Warren rolled his eyes.  As he got older, he became more embarrassed about regularly being compared to a unicorn.  Dale was sure that if Warren had met a unicorn, he may be a little more open to the idea, but right now he just saw them as creatures of purity and light.  It was nice and all, but not things that Warren personally related to.

 

“What is it?”  Warren sat up. As he did so, Dale noticed as Warren subtly pulled the blanket up to hide Scorch.  When he was at home Warren never slept without his dragon, even though he tried to hide it. Dale didn’t want to make Warren feel so ashamed of his stuffed dragon that he stopped using it, so he didn’t mention it.

 

“What if you slept somewhere else instead of the main house?”  Dale said. A look of confusion and slight hurt flashed in Warren’s eyes.

 

“I thought you wanted me around?”  Warren said.

 

“Of course I do,”  Dale assured his brother quickly.  “I’m not saying you’d go far. But if we take that old shack in the forest and make it into a cabin instead, you can go over there when you’re feeling a little overwhelmed, but can come back over any time you want some company.”

 

Warren blinked.  “That...wow, that actually sounds really great.  But would it work? I mean, it’s just a shack.”

 

“Cabins don’t need to be big,”  Dale reminded his brother. After all, Warren was just one person, and he wasn’t exactly looking for a place to satisfy all of his needs, he just needed a place to call his own.  A bit of an escape. “And it’s a really big shack.” Warren still didn’t look convinced, so Dale played the trump card he hadn’t even realized he’d had. “Lena thinks it’s worth a try,”

 

Warren’s doubts immediately seemed to disappear.  “I haven’t really seen the shack very much,” Warren sounded more curious than like he was really trying to argue Dale’s point.

 

“Well, lunch isn’t ready yet,”  Dale grabbed Warren’s hand and pulled him to his feet.  “We have time to check out the shack, come up with a proper game plan.  I mean, if that’s something you want to do.”

 

Warren gave him a small smile.  “Yeah, I think it is.” They both knew that it would take a little bit of work, because it wouldn’t be as easy as just clear out the shack and put in a bed.  And Dale didn’t think that either of them were foolish enough to think that this was a complete solution for all of Warren’s problems. It definitely wouldn’t mean that Warren would never feel overwhelmed by a few people ever again.  That wasn’t their goal here.

 

All Dale could hope for was that his brother could at least feel safe in his own home.  If Warren was constantly getting overwhelmed, there was no way that he would, or even should, stick around Fablehaven.  Dale really wanted his brother to be around, but he wouldn’t force him to stick around at the expense of his emotional comfort.  Warren knew how much he could handle, which was probably why he’d been longing to get out and door more work for the Knights. If Warren still felt the need to get away, Dale wouldn’t stop him, but if he could do anything to give Warren a reason to come home, to still  _ see  _ Fablehaven as his home, he had to at least try it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warren's officially a Knight now. You might be able to guess what's going to be happening soon, and I've gotta admit, I've really been looking forward to covering the whole 'albino' thing. I've just been on the fence about something, and maybe you guys can help me finally make a decision. I don't know whether I want to have this all stay in just a single story, or if I want to turn it into a series of stories. I definitely have enough albino related chapters for it to make up a story on its own. What do you guys think?


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